The need for urban climate resilience
Climate-related disaster events such as floods, wildfires, cyclones, storms, and landslides claimed at least 12,000 lives globally in 2023. More than half of the people killed in the 240 events recorded are from low- and middle-income countries (Save the Children 2023). Costs of extreme weather events that can at least partly be attributed to climate change are as much as $143 billion for the period from 2000 to 2019, which breaks down to around $16.3 million per hour (World Economic Forum 2023).
As the frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters keep growing (WMO 2024, World Economic Forum 2023), urgent action towards building resilience is needed. Climate-resilient development can be defined as “the process of implementing greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation measures to support sustainable development for all” (IPCC 2022). Hence, one key pillar for building resilience is climate change adaptation, including in urban areas, which are already suffering heavily from climate change impacts.
By 2050, almost 70% of the world population is projected to live in cities, which already generate more than 80% of the global GDP (World Bank 2023). Addressing disaster and climate impacts in cities is therefore not only crucial to build urban resilience, but will impact development at national and even international levels.
Cities concentrate a great deal of economic, technical, and social potential for implementing the necessary measures for resilience building. The KfW defines urban climate resilience as “the ability of the ‘urban system’ to ‘adapt’ to the risks of climate change" (Hetz 2022), pointing at systemic approaches and the need to understand and increase abilities. In summary, climate resilience is essential for making cities more sustainable (UN Habitat 2024), and digital solutions have the potential to shift related trajectories (Resilient Cities Network 2022).
Further readings
- IPCC: AR6 Synthesis report – Climate Change 2023
- Munich Re: Natural Disaster Risk – Rising trend in losses
- WMO: State of the Climate 2024 – Update for COP 29
- OECD: Climate and resilience in cities – overview page
- UNDRR: Urban Resilience – overview page
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