Report on Resilient Cities - Foundation Office Brazil
Event Reports
As an initiative of Rio´s City Hall, the workshop opened with Carlos Alberto Muniz, the Municipal Environmental Secretary. He stated that Rio de Janeiro needs to execute decisions concretely and also adopt a policy of modernisation to put the city at the forefront of civil protection. He emphasised the fight against popular opinions which do not appreciate that infrastructural development requires short term works that may cause delays. He also complained against political contradictions. For example, cheaper fuel leads to a rise in car use and harms the development of public transport.
This was followed by Pedro Junqueira, the director of the Rio de Janeiro Operations Centre, who gave an overview of the history and functions of the centre. He described how the centre was built in four months and its main aim is to reduce response times. He went on to remark that the centre is at the service of everyone and emphasized the importance of resilience (the ability to react to external risks) in the centre.
Felix Dane, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, highlighted the relationship between the foundation and the city council that has lasted many years. He celebrated the CB27 group as a very important program that should be followed as an example of cities taking more responsibility for the environment.
Paulo Nobre, researcher at INPE, described Rio as Brazil’s first city, yet, for too long it had been adapting to foreigners rather than cariocas. This is now changing and is now becoming a symbol of national pride. However, he complained that that the city had been designed for cars rather than people and this needed to change. Rio needs to become more residential and improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. He went on to stress that Rio needs to prepare for the effects of climate change such as the rising sea levels and that the next forty years will not be easy for the city’s inhabitants. He pinpointed inadequate public policy as a serious threat to the successful implementation of measures needed for the city’s adaptation to climate change.
Jose Marengo, also a researcher at INPE, stated that Rio de Janeiro is probably the city most vulnerable to the tragic consequences of climate change, and the Fluminense area is the most vulnerable in Brazil. Even though the effects of climate change are irreversible, the government needs to take responsibility and begin mapping and monitoring the most vulnerable areas.
Chou Sin Chan, a meteorologist at INPE, said that extreme weather events such as major storms are becoming more frequent. She predicted that in the future there will be more rain in the south of the country yet less in the north. She said that there will be fewer days of rainfall but they will be much more intense.
Nelson Moreira Franco, Manager of Climate Change at SMAC/ City of Rio de Janeiro, presented the conference with positive news concerning Rio de Janeiro´s ecological sustainability plan. He described the ´Rio Capital Verde´ program that had successfully carried out a massive forestation project and increased the city’s green areas. He also mentioned how Rio de Janeiro had become South America’s second largest bike using city, only behind Bogota.
Rodrigo Rosa, advisor to the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, spoke of the C40 group and described it as a network of huge cities that looks to promote sustainable urban development. It has an international presence and the climate change risk evaluation network brings innovative cities closer together. He concluded by saying that the UN Climate Summit that will take place in September needs to produce better results and that mayors of large cities need to adopt more important roles in the debates.
Regina Alvadar, Director of the National Centre for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Warning, described her ´Pluviometers in the Community´ project. Pluviometers are devices designed to be used in favelas and areas where a high risk of landslides exist. They measure the level of rainfall in order to warn the community of possible risks.
Edson Domingues, coordinator of the Climate Network, discussed the economic consequences of extreme weather events. He described how there are short term and long term consequences. An example of a short term consequence is a fall in productivity and more spending on civil protection. Examples of more long term effects would be a lack of housing, transport issues and a rise in insurance costs. He stated that Rio needs a long term strategy plan.
Cristovam Barcellos, Coordinator of the Subnet Cities Climate Network, evaluated the effects of natural disasters on the population´s health. He focused on the growth of cases of Leptospirosis after natural disasters and concluded that the consequences on health are much more dangerous and longer lasting, than the consequences on the climate and the environment.
Emilio La Rovere, Director of the Climate Centre of COPPE/UFRJ, cited the greenhouse gas emission statistics and proposed a technical study to support the development of Rio´s adaptation and resilience plan. The aim of this plan would be to define actions for adaptation in order to identify ways forward in terms of climatic resistance. He also suggested forming a working group with those present at the conference in which local government would act as a leader.
Sergio Besserman, the President of the Chamber of Sustainability for the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, also pointed out the need for good policy making and governance in the fight against climate change and the process of making Rio de Janeiro able to handle its inevitable consequences. He said that the protests that we are seeing around Brazil are against the poor quality of the Brazilian democracy. He made clear, that the improvement of the political and economic system is vital if Rio wants to limit the tragedies that will come as a result of climate change. He promoted the idea of moving the inhabitants of high risk areas for their own safety yet insisted that the government must stop people simply taking their place as this would not solve the problem.
David Stevens, Senior Programme Adviser of the UNISDR, described how the UNISDR is dedicated to the lowering of disaster risk. He also revealed that there has been a lot of progress over the last fifteen years. He continued the narrative that governance and policy making needs to improve in order to continue lowering the risk. He continued to say that there must be an improvement in statistical data in order to put evidence of development into context.
Anne Doose, from GIZ, introduced GIZ as strategic, operational and technical consultants for environmental matters. They work in the area of governance, an example of which being global initiative disaster risk management which unites members of the public and private sectors. She concluded saying that a resilient city is a city that considers different dimensions of resilience and defines required measures that need to be taken; it focuses on the local context but also considers the regional and global context, it knows what the most likely disasters are and bases its decisions on evidence and public participation and know what part of the population is the most vulnerable and supports them adequately.
Eduardo Young, of IE/GEMA, looked into the economic costs of natural disasters in the state of Rio de Janeiro where there has been a sharp rise in floods and landslides caused by rain. The financial cost of relocating people who have become homeless due to natural disasters between 2001 and 2009 reached R50 billion in Rio de Janeiro State which is a sharp rise in emergency spending.
Ulisses Canfalonieri, of FIOCRUZ, defined adaptation as the reduction of vulnerability, which means exposure, sensitivity and response times. For improved resilience it is important to work with projections of 20 or 30 years, as public economic, social and health policies have this framework for planning. FIOCRUZ has been developing complex indexes to construct vulnerability indicators for the population on the subject of health indices. Along with MMA, FIOCRUZ is beginning to develop an index that can be used around the Brazil as an analysis tool.
Aaron Spencer, of the Rockefeller Foundation, stated that resilience to natural disasters is fundamentally linked to city´s ability to be ecologically sustainable. This is as important for individuals as it is for communities.
After the presentations were over, Paulo Nobre, again became the focus of the conference. He insisted that when extreme natural disasters occur people don’t want mathematical predictions but practical suggestions. He stated that it is important what people think and not what actually is. Again referring to governance, he said that politicians have to have the courage to make unpopular decisions. He also questioned why Brazil is not committed to introducing more renewable energy sources such as solar energy.
The conference finished with Pedro Junqueira, saying that for real change to take place, environmental issues need to become popular, mainstream topics of discussion, where people from all parts of society are aware of the issues at stake and the potential consequences of inaction.
