As the international community races to combat global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, our cities and towns must urgently prepare for the impact of the climate crisis.
Many urban areas around the world already experience extreme temperatures, storms and floods. Effects that will continue to suffer even if countries succeed in meeting the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 ℃ compared to pre-industrial levels.
Rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns put great pressure on food and water supplies in urban centers and other areas, while forest fires are destroying homes and ecosystems. Heat waves, droughts and floods are also causing serious health problems and it is estimated that the climate crisis could drive more than a billion people from their homes in the next 30 years.
Global warming is causing glaciers and polar ice to melt, accelerating ocean warming and causing sea level rise that threatens almost two-thirds of cities with more than five million inhabitants, exacerbating coastal erosion. , causing floods, and intensifying freshwater pollution, as well as storms and cyclones.
Faced with this serious threat, cities are making use of a wide range of protective measures, from levees and storm tanks to nature-based solutions. Some cities already have early warning systems and resilient structures, and are accelerating the planting of trees in the streets and the creation of green roofs, providing shade and curbing the urban heat island effect.
In urban settings, it is the most disadvantaged people who are most at risk, especially those who live in informal settlements or in precarious places such as slopes prone to landslides. One billion people live in slums with few basic services or access to emergency supports in times of crisis and are outside the “formal” system of laws and regulations.
Climate change can trap vulnerable people, as each climate disaster results in the loss of life and property and causes severe disruption, while limiting their ability to cope and adapt. Thousands of cities have started to take action, but many local governments seem unprepared due to lack of knowledge, lack of relevant policies, plans, awareness, technical capacity or funding. But the longer adaptation measures are delayed, the more expensive and difficult they will be.
The latest figures show that disasters, most of which are climate-related, already cost the world economy € 446 billion a year. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all cities, towns and territories, and adaptation and resilience measures will depend on the type of hazard, population, geography and economy. Due to these differences, planning action against climate change must be participatory, gender-sensitive and transparent.
Given the urgency of the measures to be taken and the great challenge posed by climate change in urban environments, the theme of World Cities Day 2021, which is celebrated as every year on October 31, is Adapting urban centers for the climate resilience. This year, UN-Habitat and the Government of Egypt come together to celebrate this international day, the legacy of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and which coincides with the start of negotiations at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change – COP26 that It is held in Glasgow, Scotland, a space in which cities and local governments are increasingly demanding a presence.
UN-Habitat has helped cities enhance their resilience to climate change by addressing different components: assessing resilience problems; make regulatory and policy suggestions; propose specific projects and programs, link decision-makers and urban designers with donors and investors to finance implementation, and ensure better multi-level coordination between legislators from regions and countries. Recognizing the differences between cities and towns, UN-Habitat has provided the best approach for each country and, through its guide “City Resilience Action Planning” (CityRAP), adopts a process of participatory consultation based on the needs of each community.
During the four years in which the project Building Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Africa will be developed, and using the CityRAP tool, specific projects will be deployed in Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar and the Comoros Islands that will offer various adaptation solutions, such as protecting schools from floods and cyclones, improving drainage and waste management, restoring mangroves and planting trees. Along the same lines, the City’s Global Resilience Program uses data extraction and analysis to propose solutions and has worked with officials from the Brazilian town of Teresina and the Russian town of Yakutsk, known for being the coldest city in the world. world, to design and implement trust profiles that, in part, address the challenges of climate change.
This program has also been working in Barcelona, which in 2018 presented the “Climate Plan” that highlights key socio-economic aspects to address social vulnerability and resilience. Adaptation is a fundamental principle in more than 80 cities, in almost thirty countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean, where many of the UN-Habitat projects are developed, through the which support cities around the world to access financing for climate projects The UN-Habitat program “Strengthening the climate resilience of disadvantaged people in cities” unites communities and their local authorities to find ways to reduce the impact of climate-related disasters, such as improved housing and infrastructure, where citizens play an active role in the planning, design and implementation of the slum improvement process.
The actions range from the construction of a drainage or water supply system to the expansion of access roads, the reconstruction of houses and infrastructure. Cities must ensure that resilience is part of their urban policies and investment plans. By acting now, life will be improved in the present and kept safe in the future.
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