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Globally, cities have become hubs for economic activity, productivity, and important platforms for achieving sustainable development goals. The potential of urban agriculture (UA) in improving urban local economies and urban micro-climate has been acknowledged in the literature. The study looked at how the concepts of UA, local economic development (LED), and climate change can be treated in unison. Based on the review of credible published papers on the various concepts of UA, LED, climate change and nature-based solutions (NBS), a proposed conceptual framework was developed in this paper showing the linkages. The paper established that UA could boost LED, build resilient urban settlements, and promote social inclusiveness, but with social challenges. It is therefore recommended that policymakers make UA a crucial aspect of their agenda in the coming years to address the local economic and climate challenges now and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remains highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in middle-income cities to inform municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-based framework (CBF), spatially disaggregated baseline and future scenario scores for economic wealth and its exposure to climate change are developed for six different classes of capital across 77 major suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. Capital-at-risk was calculated by combining relative exposure and capital scores across different scenarios, with population impacted for major suburbs and the city's eight main planning districts. The economic risk assessment presented here provides a generic approach to assist city managers through an enhanced understanding of the relative levels of capital endowment across the city vis-à-vis relative levels of exposure to climate-related hazards over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steady emergence of transnational municipal climate networks demonstrates that cities are globally joining forces to tackle climate change. However, we still know little about how these increasingly influential organisations function. By modifying and extending an existing network typology through the development of a set of new dimensions and indicators, this paper aims to better define, systemise, and distinguish the different networks. The paper demonstrates that there are very exclusive elite networks only open to a limited number of municipalities and very inclusive mass networks open to almost all municipalities. Moreover, many networks vary significantly in terms of organisational structure, governance, or the number of involved private, public, or other partners. Additionally, we raise critical questions to be addressed by future qualitative research. These should be focused on gaining a better understanding of the significance of the various network partners as well as the existing collaboration in several networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews recent and current approaches to the formulation and implementation of urban housing policies in towns and cities in the global South, with emphasis on local government-community participation and partnerships. It looks ahead into the implications of the lasting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and tenets of climate change that will constitute the 'New Normal'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, cities have become hubs for economic activity, productivity, and important platforms for achieving sustainable development goals. The potential of urban agriculture (UA) in improving urban local economies and urban micro-climate has been acknowledged in the literature. The study looked at how the concepts of UA, local economic development (LED), and climate change can be treated in unison. Based on the review of credible published papers on the various concepts of UA, LED, climate change and nature-based solutions (NBS), a proposed conceptual framework was developed in this paper showing the linkages. The paper established that UA could boost LED, build resilient urban settlements, and promote social inclusiveness, but with social challenges. It is therefore recommended that policymakers make UA a crucial aspect of their agenda in the coming years to address the local economic and climate challenges now and in the future.

Urban infrastructure investment needs in the developing world are immense, particularly when the additional costs associated with lower carbon, more climate-resilient options are considered. These cannot possibly be financed from fiscal sources and ODA flows alone; private financing will need to be accessed. Focusing on the ability of city governments and subnational urban utilities to mobilize private finance, this paper makes two core arguments. First, private investment in municipal infrastructure requires robust institutional, fiscal and regulatory systems that are often absent in developing countries. Establishing such systems often requires policy and institutional reform, much of which lies beyond the competence and control of city governments themselves. Second, while the marginal investment needs related to climate mitigation and adaptation complicate and aggravate the picture, they do not alter the fundamental requirements of private investors. Put simply, municipalities and utilities will need to satisfy the requirements of regular private finance before they can attract green private finance. This paper looks across the main avenues for city governments to mobilize private finance – municipal borrowing, public–private partnerships, and land value capture instruments – and identifies four broad factors that determine the potential size and scope of city leveraging activity. It then offers a new framework to understand where the most pressing constraints to private investment readiness lie and proposes priority measures that local and national governments, together with development partners and other stakeholders, can take to address them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When cities in the global north are considered environmental sustainable, this largely depends on how one measures emissions and understands space. Production-based and consumption-based approaches are two different ways of measuring emissions, but they are not simply measuring techniques: they relate also to different interests, they hide and reveal power relations, and they come with very different spatial implications. In this paper, we examine the Swedish city of Malmö, and the city district of Western Harbour in particular, which is often considered an environmental 'role model'. We argue that this reputation depends precisely upon how we understand space and measure emissions. We argue that so-called sustainable cities and city districts in the global north can only be considered environmental role models if one chose to ignore the fact that they completely depend upon emissions being emitted elsewhere, and ignore any relation between affluence and emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are key actors in addressing climate change. Through local policies and regulation, participation in national programmes, and membership in transnational networks, cities have been shown to play an important role in the new configurations of climate change governance beyond the nation-state. There has so far been little attention, however, on how cities in the global South fit into this agenda and how climate policies become integrated and transformed in local municipalities with varying levels of development and differing urban priorities. This paper addresses this gap by bringing together literatures on cities and climate change with urban policy mobilities to explore how mobile urban climate policies are understood and embedded within municipal governments of second-tier cities in India. Based on the empirical work in five municipalities, this paper shows how a municipal network seeks to make climate policies mobile and how local municipal governments engage with such mobile policies. I suggest that the Indian example indicates different mechanisms of policy mobility than those identified in the literature elsewhere including a different use of policy spaces locally and nationally, strategic use of shifting policy narratives across scales to access global circulations of climate policies, and an important role for the precursors of mobility such as linkages, funding and awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to the study of climate change and environmental justice with a particular focus on a Global South case-study in the São Paulo Macro Metropolis of Brazil. We also aim to contribute to mandatory critical dialogue between (anticipatory) governance and environmental justice. This study focuses on the rainy seasons from 2016 to 2019. We examine the incidence of 61 extreme precipitation events, as well as 47 deaths caused by rain events, considering their location based on vulnerability indicators. The correlations among these data allow us to reveal the socio-environmental patterns within the relationships between social vulnerability and deaths caused by general rainfall and, more specifically, extreme events. Based on this, we demonstrate that current infrastructure or its lack is one of the reasons why death tolls remain due to the absence of anticipatory governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of contextualised assessments of local climate change vulnerability serves to improve their usefulness in urban planning. For this purpose, a cross-sectoral participatory approach combining local and academic knowledge is vital. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how such assessments can be effectively facilitated. Through the elaboration of a framework for joint knowledge production, the paper develops and applies ex-post evaluation criteria to analyse how the set-up and design of participatory assessments affected the identification of local climate vulnerability in two Swedish urban areas. These cases included a series of researcher-led stakeholder dialogues involving participants from various municipal departments, national agencies and research institutions. The results demonstrate that the project set-up affected the joint knowledge production by unifying relevant competences. However, occasionally, it also created conflict. The design of the dialogues influenced the understanding of local vulnerability by broadening the perspective on risks and opportunities and by creating common visual representations of abstract issues. The paper concludes that when facilitating participatory cross-sectoral vulnerability assessments, the consideration of two aspects is important. First, intermediaries, in the form of maps, interactive techniques and metaphors, can bridge organisational divides if designed with clear and negotiated aims. Second, the project set-up can spur motivation if the initial group composition is substantiated and the process is flexible enough to allow for relevant detours. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urban infrastructure investment needs in the developing world are immense, particularly when the additional costs associated with lower carbon, more climate-resilient options are considered. These cannot possibly be financed from fiscal sources and ODA flows alone; private financing will need to be accessed. Focusing on the ability of city governments and subnational urban utilities to mobilize private finance, this paper makes two core arguments. First, private investment in municipal infrastructure requires robust institutional, fiscal and regulatory systems that are often absent in developing countries. Establishing such systems often requires policy and institutional reform, much of which lies beyond the competence and control of city governments themselves. Second, while the marginal investment needs related to climate mitigation and adaptation complicate and aggravate the picture, they do not alter the fundamental requirements of private investors. Put simply, municipalities and utilities will need to satisfy the requirements of regular private finance before they can attract green private finance. This paper looks across the main avenues for city governments to mobilize private finance – municipal borrowing, public–private partnerships, and land value capture instruments – and identifies four broad factors that determine the potential size and scope of city leveraging activity. It then offers a new framework to understand where the most pressing constraints to private investment readiness lie and proposes priority measures that local and national governments, together with development partners and other stakeholders, can take to address them.

The steady emergence of transnational municipal climate networks demonstrates that cities are globally joining forces to tackle climate change. However, we still know little about how these increasingly influential organisations function. By modifying and extending an existing network typology through the development of a set of new dimensions and indicators, this paper aims to better define, systemise, and distinguish the different networks. The paper demonstrates that there are very exclusive elite networks only open to a limited number of municipalities and very inclusive mass networks open to almost all municipalities. Moreover, many networks vary significantly in terms of organisational structure, governance, or the number of involved private, public, or other partners. Additionally, we raise critical questions to be addressed by future qualitative research. These should be focused on gaining a better understanding of the significance of the various network partners as well as the existing collaboration in several networks.

Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remains highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in middle-income cities to inform municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-based framework (CBF), spatially disaggregated baseline and future scenario scores for economic wealth and its exposure to climate change are developed for six different classes of capital across 77 major suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. Capital-at-risk was calculated by combining relative exposure and capital scores across different scenarios, with population impacted for major suburbs and the city’s eight main planning districts. The economic risk assessment presented here provides a generic approach to assist city managers through an enhanced understanding of the relative levels of capital endowment across the city vis-à-vis relative levels of exposure to climate-related hazards over time.

After the Paris Agreement that put stronger emphasis on the development of climate change adaptation policies and on the definition of financing mechanisms, there is a patent need to track whether actual planning efforts are proving sufficient. This entails the development of assessment methods and metrics as plans are drafted and actions implemented. To this end, this paper explores the concept of credibility as a critical issue in climate policy and develops an Adaptation Policy Credibility (APC) conceptual and operational assessment framework for helping to allocate public funding and private investments, and for implementing and catalysing climate policy. Through a pilot testing in four early-adopting cities (Copenhagen, Durban, Quito and Vancouver), a clear potential for large-n tracking and assessment exercises of local climate adaptation plans is envisaged. The APC approach might also be useful to guide individual cities that aim to improve their adaptation planning and policy-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gothenburg city has bold ambitions of becoming carbon neutral. School commuting is one piece of the puzzle in reducing emissions. While the literature on school transportation is extensive, the issue of climate change has been overlooked. This article explores how parents in the district of Majorna understand mundane choices of school transportation in a context of increasing recognition of climate change. The article shows that school transport is a contentious issue, entangled with subjectivity, emotions, and notions of responsibility. The findings also highlight some complexities: (1) Although most parents are concerned with climate change it is not a significant factor in daily transportation. (2) There is a discourse in favour of active transportation where climate change is explicitly downplayed, on the other hand regular car use merges with deep climate concerns. (3) Informants' anticipations of future urban traffic conflict with their hopes, yet it seems difficult to imagine something otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews recent and current approaches to the formulation and implementation of urban housing policies in towns and cities in the global South, with emphasis on local government-community participation and partnerships. It looks ahead into the implications of the lasting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and tenets of climate change that will constitute the ‘New Normal’.

African urban areas and cities are primarily seen as vulnerable to climate change. Apparent attempts to get required policies have led to the widespread proliferation of overlapping and duplications of policies. Using a policy coherence framework, this study aims to synthesise the coherency of climate adaptation and urban policies in Ghana. The study used content analysis of existing policy documents to understand if specific variables are explicit, implicit or not mentioned in four urban and climate change policies in Ghana. It was found that there is a minimal degree of coherence only in the adaptation measures, but there is a general lack of coherence in the motivation and implementation. This can be attributed to radically different current institutional arrangements for urban planning and climate change, inconsistent use of data and terminologies, and lack of embracement of innovations in urban planning in African cities. The findings suggest that attention must be given to integrated collaborative adaptation planning to address these impediments in urban planning context of African cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceived and actual causes of flood hazards in cities of sub-Saharan African countries have come under tremendous debate. In Accra, the capital of Ghana, flooding has been the key source of human vulnerability. Studies carried out on flood vulnerability in the city have given varied attributions to their frequent occurrences. In this paper we comprehensively explore the various causes of flood hazards in our bid to set the stage for an integrated approach to flood management. Using mixed methods including document reviews, institutional consultations and key informant interviews, the study categorises all the causes of flood hazards in Accra into three broad but interrelated thematic areas presenting a platform for integrated flood management. The study therefore recommends a comprehensive and integrated approach to flood management that takes into consideration the peculiarities of local physical, social, and political conditions. A framework for such an integrated approach is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When cities in the global north are considered environmental sustainable, this largely depends on how one measures emissions and understands space. Production-based and consumption-based approaches are two different ways of measuring emissions, but they are not simply measuring techniques: they relate also to different interests, they hide and reveal power relations, and they come with very different spatial implications. In this paper, we examine the Swedish city of Malmö, and the city district of Western Harbour in particular, which is often considered an environmental ‘role model’. We argue that this reputation depends precisely upon how we understand space and measure emissions. We argue that so-called sustainable cities and city districts in the global north can only be considered environmental role models if one chose to ignore the fact that they completely depend upon emissions being emitted elsewhere, and ignore any relation between affluence and emissions.

This paper contributes to the study of climate change and environmental justice with a particular focus on a Global South case-study in the São Paulo Macro Metropolis of Brazil. We also aim to contribute to mandatory critical dialogue between (anticipatory) governance and environmental justice. This study focuses on the rainy seasons from 2016 to 2019. We examine the incidence of 61 extreme precipitation events, as well as 47 deaths caused by rain events, considering their location based on vulnerability indicators. The correlations among these data allow us to reveal the socio-environmental patterns within the relationships between social vulnerability and deaths caused by general rainfall and, more specifically, extreme events. Based on this, we demonstrate that current infrastructure or its lack is one of the reasons why death tolls remain due to the absence of anticipatory governance.

Climate-related phenomena historically have had an impact on the lives of urban dwellers of Luanda and Maputo. Recently, however, urban expansion and congestion of different sorts, aggravated by climate change impacts, call for renewed responses on the part of residents. Rising sea levels and harder impacts of flooding are the most disturbing issues in the two coastal capitals, demanding both institutional responses and strategies of urban residents, particularly the most vulnerable. Based on qualitative data collected in Luanda and Maputo, this article describes how urban residents aim to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and by doing so, shape the cities they live in and their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of ongoing urbanisation and unabated climate change, cities face increasing demands for improvements in urban climate change governance. This article investigates the activities of transnational municipal networks that were set up in response to climate change and analyses their potential to influence local climate governance. On the basis of a conceptualisation of transnational municipal climate networks (TMCNs), quantitative data on the proliferation of TMCNs amongst German municipalities were assessed and complemented by a qualitative analysis of scientific and grey literature and interviews. The quantitative analysis reveals a wide proliferation of TMCNs in Germany. Finally, the results show that TMCNs have different profiles which can be categorised into four functions all of which might influence local climate change governance. The functions are ‘platform’, ‘consultant’, ‘commitment broker’ and ‘advocate’. It is concluded that TMCNs can play a crucial role in fostering climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More than half the world lives in towns and cities that are disproportionately located along locations exposed to climate change such as coasts and rivers. There is a burgeoning body of literature that argues urban resilience is contingent upon decentralised decision-making, structured learning, engaging concurrently with multiple shocks and stresses, getting urban planning right and understanding the political underpinnings of risk and vulnerability. Yet, interviews with policy makers in 13 Asian cities reveal the need for researchers to engage with the relationship between decentralisation and resilience more critically, explore the value of informal learning processes, avoid conflating shocks and stresses, acknowledge the limits of urban planning as an entry point for resilience and lay greater emphasis on the interaction of politics and resilience. As such, this article provides a ‘reality check’ for research on the topic and suggests directions for the future development of an emerging field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines environmental and livelihood vulnerabilities of low-income coastal settlements in Lagos, Nigeria. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach is used as the analytical framework of how household’s assets are affected by flood incidence. Using mixed methods combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, factors that intensify the impacts of flood events on livelihoods assets of the urban poor are examined. Results indicate that the effects of floods on urban poor livelihoods are multifaceted. Vulnerability of Lagos to flood hazards is a function of various biophysical, topographical, climatic and socio-economic factors. It was also noted that uncoordinated urban expansion into flood prone areas, and increase in the intensity and volume of rain are also contributory factors to incidence of flood hazards in Lagos. The article concludes by recommending strategies for coping with the challenges faced by these communities and these include infrastructure upgrading, effective development control and civic reorientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies the future challenges that cities face in their ability to create well-being, particularly for urban poor communities, as a result of the compound effect generated by climate change – distinguishing between direct impacts, indirect effects and pre-existing vulnerability. This suggests that action to reduce exposure and improve the adaptive capacity of urban populations must therefore simultaneously address disaster risk reduction, urban poverty reduction and urban resilience (i.e. the ability of the city to maintain the functions that support the well-being of its citizens). Based on evidence and experience from 10 cities which form part of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (www.acccrn.org), this article proposes that a simplified conceptual model and resilience characteristics be used to analyse urban systems, in parallel with spatial analysis, to target action at multiple levels to reduce exposure and improve the adaptive capacity of urban populations simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanisation and climate change pose major challenges for humankind in the twenty-first century. Climate change will also change contemporary approaches to urban development as to how planners envisage development thus raising profound professional, technical and ethical issues. This article uses ideas of the emerging field of meta-theoretical studies, which bring to the forefront the phenomenon of spirituality. Scholars in this field point out that the reality of progressing climate change touches on the very existential (spiritual) foundations of human beings, which are hitherto largely ignored. Therefore, spirituality is increasingly seen as an important dimension framing and underlying the notions of and responses to climate change. According to these arguments, this article discusses the nexus and relationship of urbanisation, climate change and development with spirituality by applying Ken Wilber's integral theory. It concludes with implications of this approach with respect to planning theory and practice, and planning professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that limited understanding of the social needs and capabilities of specific places and communities present limitations in the progression of public policy and strategic response to climate change risks. Social capital, a mutually beneficial collective action found in communities to different extents, has the potential to facilitate urban vulnerability reduction necessary for climate change adaptation. This article explores how the notion of social capital can attain new relevance by motivating the initiation and accomplishment of measures to overcome climate change risks facing coastal East African cities. Building on the existing conceptualization of social capital and associated concepts in climate change theory and policy, this article demonstrates how, within a social capital framework, the analysis of risk and adaptation can move away from a purely top-down focus on formal organizational capacity towards an acknowledgment of the importance of informal social networks in the final directing of flow of activities as well as policy enactment. This article finds that a strong tradition of collaboration, trust and reciprocal relationships between local resource-oriented groups in the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam can be leveraged to generate material interventions directed at reducing vulnerability to climate variability and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]