Delhi is in the grip of an inferno right now, but it is about an urban heat crisis, which has huge health and economic implications. Delhi’s two seasons of despair, winter with air pollution and now summer with intense heat, both need urgent action.
Centre for Science and Environment's report Making Delhi Heat-Resilient presents this action agenda; it goes beyond providing short term solutions to heat; it tells us why urban planning must be about managing this and building resilience.
This when we know heat intensity is both about climate change – heat records are being broken each year – but also about the way we are building our cities. More concrete, less green areas; more road surface, more vehicles and even more air conditioners as people need cooling devices to combat this heat.
Our report shows that it is not about total green cover in the city; but about locations where more people live; where density is high and there is no protection. This is the class-story of Delhi’s heat. This is what makes heat a killer and needs us to act.