Search

Urban planning remains an important tool in managing climate change impacts. It also remains crucial in building sustainable adaptive capacities, particularly in cities of the global north. It however remains largely unknown in urban Africa about planning agencies' perspectives on climate change adaptation-urban planning conundrum, and corresponding policy responses. This paper thus examines urban planners' perspectives and planning responses on managing climate change impacts and building adaptive capacities in Accra, Ghana. Using a review of four relevant urban planning and climate change policies, and interviews with five urban planning agencies in Accra, findings indicate that urban planning regimes are less efficient, more reactionary, and unsustainable in building resilience and adaptive capacities to climate change impacts. The findings show evidence of weak institutional and stakeholder coordination, inadequate funds and institutional logistics and human capacity, which have contributed to the inability to manage 'normal' climate change impacts such as floods and build resilience to them. The paper concludes with suggestions for building resilience to climate change impacts and incorporating adaptation concerns into urban planning efforts in Ghana. • Hydrological disasters have increased in frequency due to climate change and other human induced activities • Urban planning is an important tool in building sustainable adaptive capacities to climate change • Urban planning regimes are less efficient, reactionary and unsustainable in building climate resilience in Ghana • Weak institutional coordination have contributed to the city's inability to manage 'normal' climate change impacts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas play a pivotal role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to adverse effects of climate change, worldwide. Climate-related assessment of urban development projects shall contribute to reduce complex climate vulnerability, especially in fast growing cities in emerging economies. Hungarian cities face significant challenges regarding changing climatic patterns, consequently climate-oriented assessment methodology to evaluate the performance of urban development interventions is needed. The main aim of the research was to elaborate on a comprehensive methodology that can define mitigation, adaptation, and awareness-raising aspects of interventions; moreover may reveal path dependencies in order to avoid negative lock-ins during urban development activities. The developed method uses a three-step scoring approach to assess both direct and indirect impacts of selected interventions while taking into account the main objectives of the Budapest Climate Change Strategy as evaluation criteria in order to strengthen local-specific characters. By applying the developed methodology, the main conclusions can be defined by paying attention to weaknesses and strengths of the selected interventions regarding mitigation, adaptation, and awareness-raising issues; thus, further recommendations were identified to improve their overall climate performance and to avoid negative lock-ins. • Analysis of urban development actions is crucial in avoiding negative lock-ins. • The developed method uses a three-step scoring approach to assess both the direct and indirect impacts of selected interventions. • Further recommendations were identified to improve their overall climate performance and to avoid negative lock-ins. • The recommendations made in the present paper may support the decision making processes during the whole life cycle of planned actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]