The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the launch of an initiative to help Asian cities prepare for the potentially devastating effects of climate change. The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network initiative will work to develop risk and vulnerability analyses and, in partnership with the World Bank, resilience-building projects, including health systems to help stop the spread of dengue fever, infrastructure to help manage flooding, and land-use and building code reform.

The network is focusing its efforts on six cities in India and Vietnam – Surat, Indore and Gorakphur in India and Da Nang, Can Tho and Quy Nhon inVietnam – and is exploring expansion into Thailand and Indonesia. Global urban population is estimated to increase from 3.2 billion to 4.9 billion over the next 30 years, with more than 60 per cent of that increase occurring in Asia.

‘Communities around the world need better weapons,’ said Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin, ‘new tools, techniques, and strategies – if they hope to tame the three-headed hydra of climate risk, poverty, and precipitous urbanization.’

Commitments to the initiative, though unspecified, apparently represent a significant portion of the Foundation’s $70 million global effort to create strategies to help individuals cope with the effects of imminent climate change

For more information
Press release dated 27 January http://www.rockfound.org