Bhubaneswar, 5^th March 2024: The costs of ecological distress and climate change are frontally and disproportionately borne by those lowest in class, caste, and gender hierarchies. Climate justice requires us to focus on inequalities, vulnerabilities and the need for localized participation and engagement by affected or vulnerable communities in climate action. These conclusions were reached at the three-day capacity-building workshop on ‘Fostering People’s Empowerment for Urban Climate Justice’ organized by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, Yong India and ActionAid Association in Bhubaneswar, from 4^th March 2024.

Fifty participants from five states of eastern India, namely Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, participated. The workshop, the first in the series of five capacity-building workshops that ActionAid Association has planned to organize in Shimla, Lucknow, Guwahati and Chennai, covering different regions of the country and is part of a collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research.

Speaking on the occasion, Debabrat Patra, Associate Director, ActionAid Association, said that this is an essential endeavour in which we can understand various aspects of the effects of climate change in urban areas. Dipali Sharma, Director – Organisational Effectiveness, ActionAid Association, commented on various national and international efforts to mitigate efforts of climate change and how these need to be made more people-centred, particularly those communities who are bearing the disproportionate impact and the need for various stakeholders to come together to advance localized and community-led solutions to the crisis. N A Shah Ansari, Founder, Young India, shared about the distress people are facing due to coastal erosion in the different districts in Odisha, which has been increasing due to sea level rise as a direct impact of global warming.

Prof Sutapa Pati from XIM University and Dr Shakuntata Pratihary from Sri Sri University discussed the scientific fundamentals around the global debates on climate change, international policies and agreements on climate governance and the varied ways in which local communities and civil society organizations can address the issues of climate justice.

The participants also visited Banafula, a nearby slum, to understand how climate change and extreme weather events like cyclones and flooding are exacerbating the already vulnerable conditions in which urban poor communities live. The residents of Banafula were relocated to their current location due to the expansion of railway infrastructure on the land they lived in earlier, about ten years ago. The relocation has not only increased the distance from existing livelihood options of the residents, public schools, anganwadi centres and public hospitals, but the new area is also in a low lying area due to high rise construction in the surrounding leading to perpetual water logging in the relocation area. With changes in rainfall patterns due to climate change, the residents face increased intensity and frequency of urban flooding, which increases health issues and impacts livelihood days and children’s school attendance.

Sudarshan Chohotoray, veteran journalist, B. N Durga, Senior Programme Manager, Piramal Foundation, Sujit Mohapatra, Chief Executive, Bakul Foundation, Sadashiv Swain, Secretary Center for Child and Women Development and Bratindi Jena, Climate Change researcher addressed the participants on various issues of climate change and its impact on the communities and possible community action to curb the effects of climate change. Across the three days, the participants had the opportunity for group discussions and group activities to prepare ideas for conducting future climate action research focussing on the impact of climate change on marginalized communities in urban areas.

ActionAid Association has plans to support 10-12 community-based climate action research projects across the country in the coming year to bring to the fore marginalized people’s perspectives and the localized community-based mitigation and adaptation efforts being practised locally. The idea is to advance the overall climate discourse from a climate justice point of view. These action research projects will focus on the various extreme weather and slow onset climate change effects impacting different social and occupational groups across the country. The program aims to strengthen the capacity and build agency of local and marginalized communities residing in cities, linking their lived experiences with the global climate change discourse.

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For more information, contact: Debabrat Patra| Debabrat.patra@actionaid.org | 9437493410

About ActionAid Association

ActionAid Association is an organisation working for social and ecological justice. ActionAid has been engaged with the most marginalised communities in India since 1972. In 2006, ActionAid Association was registered as an Indian organisation, governed by an independent General Assembly and a Governing Board. Together with supporters, communities, institutions and governments, we strive for equality, fraternity and liberty for all. ActionAid Association works in 24 states and two union territories, with several partners and allied organisations. ActionAid Association is part of a global federation and a full affiliate of ActionAid International, that has presence in over 40 countries worldwide.