Resilient Cities is one of the Action Themes at the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021.
Why is Resilient Cities an Action Theme at CAS 2021?
Cities and urban areas – many of them in coastal regions – are home to half of the world’s population, with currently 880 million people living in informal settlements that lack sufficient infrastructure.
Cities now are on the frontlines of COVID-19, with urban residents facing devastating health and economic impacts. Many city leaders are responding with creative solutions, recognising that actions in response to the pandemic can also make cities greener and more climate resilient.
The urban poor, migrants and low-wage workers are often the most affected and, in addition to lacking essential services, experience overcrowded living conditions, pre-existing chronic health conditions, and food shortages. Climate change impacts such as flooding, storm damages and heatwaves are compounding these problems, which also impact low-income people the most.
The Global Commission on Adaptation and the Commission’s Resilient Cities Action Track Lead Partners (WRI/GCA/RCN/UN-Habitat/C40) identify where these issues intersect and offer win-win-win solutions that can simultaneously address the pandemic, climate threats, and inequality.
Adaptation investments consistently deliver high returns, with benefit-cost ratios ranging from 2:1 to 10:1. Plus, adaptation often creates more jobs per dollar spent than traditional investment, and many of those jobs are at the local level.
With a 10-year Global Program, cities simultaneously recover from COVID-19 and build a more resilient, inclusive future that can deliver immediate benefits to the most vulnerable people, while also building cities’ long-term capacity to adapt to climate change. The Global Commission on Adaptation’s Cities Action Track is catalysing and scaling financial investment in climate adaptation.
Climate change is already damaging cities. Droughts, heat waves, landslides, storms, and – especially in coastal areas – floods are increasing threats, with high human and economic losses.
Especially residents of informal settlements will face huge challenges regarding electricity, health care, sanitation, education, and clean water.
By 2050, costs of climate change impact to urban areas will have risen to more than USD 1 trillion.
How is CAS 2021 going to make a difference for cities?
The need to accelerate adaptation in cities and to invest in multi-benefit solutions is higher than ever before. For this reason, a 10-year Global Program on Cities to speed up and scale up climate adaptation in cities worldwide has been established. This is the main deliverable of the Cities Coalition installed by the Global Commission on Adaptation.
It is now for us, the Coalition, Cities and City networks to take on the mantle and help build more resilient and equitable cities worldwide. The CAS 2021 Anchoring Event on Resilient Cities will allow partners and stakeholders to share best practices and coordinate actions. Moreover, they will launch the 10-year Global Program – 1000 Cities Adapt Now – via a Joint Statement, and present and discuss its key components and partners:
A unique platform of joint key players that combine forces to provide donors and cities a defragmented offer, both institutional and content-wise, to accelerate and scale climate adaptation in cites.
By 2030, 1000 cities will have a comprehensive Climate Resilience Strategy and have started implementing their related adaptation action plans.
1. Scalable practical transformative capacity building – deliverables:
Development of Cities Adaptation Accelerator (CAA), including new modules on e.g. vulnerable communities and on floating urban development in coastal cities.
By 2030, CAA application in 100 cities to build climate adaptation strategies and action plans and parallel start implementation.
Dissemination to and exchange between 1000 regional cities, supported by the Resilient Cities Coalition partners and the Community of Water Adaptation Practice.
2. Knowledge and Learning network – deliverables, by 2030:
Support for 100 cities and 100 communities in developing and implementing 200-300 inclusive climate adaptation initiatives in partnership with global network of 40 universities.
Provision of education and knowledge capacity building for students in 200 cities through MSc IHE Delft.
1. Advance nature-based solutions (NBS) in cities to reduce climate risks – deliverable:
By 2030, a coalition of 60 cities have integrated NBS into spatial planning, investments, and infrastructure implementation to reduce their climate risks.
2. Urban Water Resilience – deliverables, by 2030:
An Urban Water Resilience programme has been set up to implement a new city regional approach and scale urban water action plans in cities across sub-Saharan Africa.
The Africa Urban Water Resilience programme has scaled deep dive support from 6 to 25 cities.
A pan-African finance coalition that supports urban water resilience has been established.
3. Build the climate resilience of the urban poor – deliverables:
By 2023, implement climate resilience pilot projects in 12 hotspot cities, and mainstream pro-poor resilience in national and local climate policies.
By 2027, scale up climate resilience to 50-70 hotspot cities through planning and investment finance.
By 2030, enhance capacity among all levels of government and core partners to coordinate action towards resilience of the urban poor globally in at least 100 cities.
Lead: WRI, co-lead: GCOM – deliverables:
Establish a monitoring & evaluation plan and develop indicators for the Global Program to track its progress.
By 2030, add the resilience data of 1000 cities to GCOM’s climate data portal.
