How to tackle complexity in urban climate resilience? Negotiating climate science, adaptation and multi-level governance in India

4.1.1. Functional mandate. Climate actions are concerned with multiple-tiers of govern- ment–national, state and the local. The nodal institution governing climate change at the national level is the central ministries, notably the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Cli- mate Change (MoEFCC) while the states have similar departments with differing nomencla- ture such as Department of Environment and Forest (in Assam), Department of Forest and Wildlife Preservation (Punjab); Forest, Ecology and Environment Department (Karnataka). The MoEFCC is responsible for planning, promotion, co-ordination and implementation of India’s climate policies and programmes. It has framed the overarching NAPCC under which respective state governments are implementing their State Action Plan for Climate Change (SAPCCs). The SAPCCs address a range of concerns including, assessing community vulnera- bilities, identifying climate change effects across states, understanding the impact of economic activities on the environment, and proposing strategies to respond to climate change [61]. However, it is observed that the states continue to prioritize protection of natural environ- ment, forests and wildlife over climate concerns. For instance, the vision statement of the Kar- nataka’s environment department is “Conservation, management and development of forests and tree growth, on sustainable basis, for present and future generations” [62]. Climate change has not yet become a major focus area for these departments. The governmental actions in

dealing with climate change are chiefly driven by climate mitigation, with adaptation being a co-benefit [10, 63]. Likewise, for urban areas, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), is the nodal ministry and implements the National Mission for Sustainable Habitat. The MoHUA deals with development, water supply, sanitation, transport, housing, and poverty alleviation in urban areas, which will be severely impacted by global warming. However, climate change has not been integrated into the urban policies and programmes of MoHUA, except for urban flooding, wherein it recently prepared guidelines to deal with increasing flood threat in urban areas. Similar to the state environmental departments, exists a parallel vertical apparatus of urban departments in respective states. While higher levels of government formulate policies, programmes and guidelines, their implementation is done by the concerned state line depart- ments and urban local body (ULB). A ULB can be a municipal corporation, municipal council, town committee, and in certain cases a development authority. The normative functions to be performed by a ULB are provided in the 12th Schedule of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act [64]. The functions cover urban planning including town planning, regulation of land use, planning for economic and social development, water supply, public health, urban forestry, protection of environment and promotion of ecological aspects, slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation, provision of parks and gardens, among others [51, 65], a notable exception

being energy needs/ electricity. The modes by which these are planned and implemented is discussed in #4.2 Polices and plans. Thus, there is not just a noticeable gap in clearly spelling out climate resilience in the legal provisions applicable to ULBs, but also in fully empowering them to deal with the imminent challenge on the ground. 4.1.2. Policies and plans. Currently, India is implementing several urban programmes in mission mode [66] like the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). There are capacity building components designated under these urban missions, which mainly focus on improving infra- structure and functioning of cities, and the use of new technologies to improve efficiency and provide a better quality of life in urban areas. However, building technical capacities to gener- ate regional climate change projections that accurately assess climate vulnerability and impacts in cities and mitigate those has not been incorporated in these initiatives (see Table 1). The ULBs execute functions in the 12th Schedule through preparation and implementation of multiple city-wide plans, including Town Plan/ Physical Land use plans, Storm water PLOS ONE Negotiating complexity of climate science, adaptation and multi-level governance in urban resilience PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253904 July 1, 2021 6 / 21