India's Urban Climate Crisis Is the Result of Our Own Policy Failures

The poor are hardest hit but top-down policy can be aligned with ground engagement to spell hope

- DEEPANSHU MOHAN

A recent World Bank study warns that 70% of India's 2050 urban infrastructure is yet to be built. As cities expand, India's urbanization is becoming metabolically unsustainable: a system that produces climate effects as much as it endures them.

Cities function like living organisms, consuming energy, water and materials while emitting heat, waste and pollutants. This 'urban metabolism' has breached ecological limits, creating a 'metabolic rift,' or a disconnect between relentless construction and nature's capacity to regenerate.

In Bengaluru, over 1,000 storm-water drains were encroached in 2024 alone, while Kolkata has lost over 44% of its water bodies in the last two decades. These are reflections of an urban model that builds by displacing ecology.

The effects are most evident in rising urban heat. Urban heat island (UHI) effects, intensified by glass, asphalt and shrinking green cover, trap dangerous levels of heat. In May 2024, the temperature in New Delhi hit 47.3°C. The city's climate severity index has risen 1.5% over 15 years to 57. These are outcomes of flawed heat-amplifying design.

It's similar with urban flooding. It is no longer just a 'drainage issue,' but a systemic hydrological failure. Sealed landscapes can't absorb rainfall. As a result, pluvial floods are expected to intensify from 3.6 to 7 times by 2070.