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Unlocking the Potential for Transformative Climate Adaptation in Cities
Transformative adaptation reorients urban climate actions around addressing entrenched equity and climate justice challenges. It focuses on systemic changes to development processes that improve people’s quality of life, enhance the social and economic vibrancy of cities, and ensure sustainable, resilient, and inclusive urban futures. This paper, part of a series of background papers commissioned by the Global Commission on Adaptation, systematically reviews literature and case studies across the global north and south to assess the barriers and enablers to transformative climate adaptation, focusing on examples and evidence from a wide range of cities.
The Power of Multistakeholder Collaboration in Creating More Equitable and Sustainable Cities
Neither cities nor national governments can mitigate or adapt to climate change alone; they need each other to succeed – and indeed many more stakeholders, including community groups, businesses and research organizations. Multistakeholder strategies and partnerships are essential to driving transformative climate action in cities. To demonstrate how different stakeholders can center equity within plans for low-carbon and climate resilient cities, we launched a new set of recommended actions by actor at COP27 at an event featuring a diverse set of urban changemakers working in India, Mexico, South Africa and globally. The recommended actions by actor are derived from the research of dozens of experts in our flagship World Resources Report series, Towards a More Equal City, and the event comprised a lively discussion facilitated by WRI President and CEO Ani Dasgupta.
World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City
The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City is a six-year research project, first launched at Habitat III in Quito in 2016, by WRI. It is composed of seven thematic working papers diving deep into how cities can prioritize equitable access to core services while improving the environment and economy overall; seven city case studies exploring how transformative change happens; and a framing paper and culminating synthesis report.
Course on ‘Seven Transformations for More Equitable and Sustainable Cities’
This course explores the seven transformations identified in WRI’s Towards a More Equal City series to help make cities more equitable and sustainable and provide city case studies. The course is anticipated to take approximately an hour to complete. The course is self-paced and can be started and stopped at your convenience.
Home Equals Campaign
Home Equals is a five-year global advocacy campaign by Habitat for Humanity International dedicated to achieving policy change at all levels to ensure that people living in informal settlements have equitable access to adequate housing. Together, with partners, governments and communities, we can create lasting change so that people living in informal settlements have safe and secure homes.
How Improved Housing in Under-Served Communities Can Strengthen Climate Resilience
Informal settlements are home to low-income and marginalized communities prone to landslides, sea-level rise and flooding as a result of climate change. Their experience is not unique. One in three people living in cities globally — more than 1 billion people — do not have reliable, safe or affordable access to basic everyday necessities like decent housing, running water and sanitation, electricity, health care, or transportation to get to work or school. As the urban population is projected to increase by another 2.5 billion people by 2050, this “urban services divide” is not only a development challenge but a roadblock to climate action. Inadequate housing and lack of services exacerbate the impacts of extreme weather events, leading to increased damage, more lives lost and longer recovery times.
Succesful Efforts Led by REHOUSE Partners
This interactive set of cases from REHOUSE partners and other organizations showcases innovative climate-resilient housing solutions, participatory community development, and multi-level governance, highlighting the transformative impact of delivering infrastructure in affordable and low-carbon ways while making poor urban households and communities more climate-resilient.