Unlocking the potential for transformative climate adaptation in cities

Many municipalities have developed climate action plans that include strong steps to address climate adaptation and climate justice. Climate justice includes many of these same initiatives, but orients them toward poor and otherwise disadvantaged populations while developing an overall understanding of how climate impacts affect some groups disproportionately. Many cities in the developing world currently lack even basic floodplain maps that are crucial to adaptation efforts. City decision-makers need to coordinate within city agencies and across sectors and scales of government to mainstream climate adaptation across planning and infrastructure delivery. City governments must strengthen the adaptive capacity of vulnerable and informal communities. City decision-makers must coordinate nature-based solutions across jurisdictions and with regional agencies, since ecosystems such as watersheds typically extend well beyond urban boundaries.