Rio mobilizes 1.67 bln USD to tackle climate change, urban challenges

The Rio de Janeiro city government on Thursday launched a program to deal with climate change and urban challenges.

The Resilient Rio program, presented by Rio mayor Eduardo Paes, has mobilized investments of 4.3 billion reals (1.67 billion U.S. dollars).

The program will present diagnoses of the city' s main risks on climate change and define guidelines for actions to be taken, the mayor explained.

"We are not saying that Rio is now prepared to deal with all the problems about climate change," Paes said. "Our goal is to minimize the impact."

According to the government, Rio is the city which invests the most in climate change issues in Brazil, and the first in the world to create an administration and a position within the structure of the municipal administration to address such issues.

Over 100 people from around 40 municipal agencies were mobilized to draft the document, the government said. The program will be coordinated by Rio's Operation Center, and led by Pedro Junqueira, who will be the city's first chief executive of resilience and operations.

"The use of the term resilience in city management is something new and is gaining weight in the way the government deals with climate change ... Being resilient means to bring the least possible impact to the city. Preventive action is the most important. However, when shocks are inevitable, it is essential to have adequate information and infrastructure, specific operations and citizens capable of protecting each other," Junqueira stated.

The Resilient Rio program starts with the production of a document listing Rio's current scenario and most pressing challenges in relation to climate change, such as rains and strong winds, heat waves, elevation of sea level and dengue fever.

Among the projects mapped by Resilient Rio to help Rio deal with climate challenges is the construction of four big pools in the Greater Tijuca area. By adding diversion to river Joana, they are expected to increase the rainwater drainage capacity and reduce in Praca da Bandeira area the risk of flooding, which happens practically every summer, causing great property damages and many problems to the city.

Another project, concerning the slums located on hills, maps inhabited communities and slopes with geological risk, implements an evacuation plan with siren systems, and improves infrastructure to reduce risks for the population.

Rio is a member of the 100 Resilient Cities network, a Rockefeller Foundation initiative which helps cities gain technical support needed to deal with various issues. Other cities in the network include Huangshi and Deyang in China, Barcelona in Spain, and Durban in South Africa. Endi