Resilient Cities Action Track

For more information or to get involved, please contact Rogier Vandenberg (rogier.vandenberg@wri.org) and Arnoud Molenaar (a.molenaar@rotterdam.nl).

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Adapting to climate change is an imperative for cities, which are home to half of the world’s population and produce 80 percent of the world’s GDP. Cities face serious climate risks. Done right, climate adaptation can put cities on a stronger, safer path, while also tackling persistent problems like poverty and inequality. The Global Commission on Adaptation’s flagship report, Adapt Now, calls for redoubling the effort to build more resilient, equitable cities and lays out a pathway to get there.

The Commission is mobilizing many partners to achieve this goal, through the Resilient Cities Action Track. The overarching goal of this Action Track is to develop a defragmented offer by bringing together key city networks and institutions in the urban adaptation space to leverage their overlapping geographies, complementary skills, city-national-global relationships & partnerships, datasets and knowledge to scale up and accelerate action on urban adaptation. To achieve this goal, the Cities Action Track is forging a strategic alliance, led by World Resources Institute (WRI), the Global Center for Adaptation, Global Resilient Cities Network (GRCN), C40, and UN-Habitat, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment of the Netherlands and in collaboration with key knowledge partners such as Deltares.

The three pathways to action identified by this alliance are:

1. Setup a PLATFORM to enhance coordination and build synergies across urban resilience partners, and adaptation programs to enhance urban adaptation in national plans and policymaking (NAPs and NDCs) and broker subnational financing agreements and access to private sector capital.
2. Build transformative CAPACITY for adaptation planning in 500 cities and develop a knowledge and learning network with 40 universities. This capacity building initiative will support peer to peer learning, focused on both practice building and knowledge development, by providing and applying tools, such as adaptation academies, documenting and disseminating best practices, building centers for applied research, and co-learning partnerships between cities, universities and community organizations.
3. Accelerate and scale SOLUTIONS for urban adaptation with a focus on Nature-based Solutions, Urban Water Resilience Actions, Floating Urban Development options, and Inclusive Climate Resilient infrastructure improvements for the urban poor living in informal settlements.

1. A Collaborative Platform for Urban Adaptation Solutions

The Platform brings together key players in the urban adaptation space. Together the core partners WRI, Global Center on Adaptation, UN-Habitat, Global Resilient Cities Network & C40 will develop defragmented offers of urban adaptation solutions that leverage their complementary skills, overlapping geographies and capacities to accelerate and scale implementation in prioritized areas in a broad range of regions. Together these partners commit to convene and influence global, national and local stakeholders as a united front through ongoing research and agenda-setting initiatives, using existing relationships and entry points into decision-making and policymaking processes to gain political leverage for urban adaptation. In addition, partners will evolve capacity to broker sub-national financing arrangements at scale through specific instruments like Project Preparation Facilities (PPFs) & a joint secretariat.

2. Transformative Capacity Building for Adaptation and Rigorous Learning

The capacity building pillar will focus on both practice (2a) and knowledge development (2b).

2a. Practical transformative capacity building for resilient cities

We aim to provide transformative climate resilience capacity building in cities by:

1. Scaling up C40 Adaptation Academy training program (2.0) for climate adaptation professionals starting in C40 and GRCN city networks from 20 cities currently to 500 cities by 2030; Result: 500 cities including 4,000 trained professionals delivered Climate Resilience Strategies and have started implementing action plans;
2. Developing a new MSc program on Climate Adaptation for Cities in collaboration with IHE Delft and Rotary International; connecting 200 graduates to the City Adaptation Academy training programs. Result: in 200 cities, graduates have crucial positions in accelerating urban adaptation;
3. Connecting to a city-to-city learning program where 500 nodal cities each support 10 medium-sized regional cities (via mentor/learning-city principles). Result: 5000 cities have become more water and climate resilient based on partnerships, aligning capabilities and mobilizing resources to develop plans and investments.

2b. Knowledge and learning network for transformative resilience planning

Resilience planning requires assessment of complex nexus issues at the intersection on natural, built and human environments; this demands close collaboration across disciplines, knowledge systems and sectors to respond to climate change risks. This needs knowledge development and capacity building at all levels from science to practice. Universities are uniquely positioned to mobilize talent, develop knowledge resources, and support learning and capacity building among and across community organizations, city governments, and the private sector to drive inclusive climate adaptation.

This requires developing and implementing multiple programs to support university, city government and community collaboration on urban adaptation. This is supported by a unique partnership between a network of 40+ global universities — the Collaborative for Urban Resilience Effectiveness (CURE), the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM), the Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change (LUCCC), the International Centre for Climate Change & Development (ICCCAD), and a network of 100 resilient cities (GRCN), a global network of non-profits (UN-Habitat, Global Center on Adaptation, WRI) and a federation of 100+ community-based organizations (Slum and Shack Dwellers International).

Fact Sheet: Learn more about the University-City-Community Collaboration

3. Accelerate and Scale Solutions for Urban Adaptation

3a. Advance nature-based solutions in cities to reduce climate risks

Working with Cities4Forest and other partners, we will help a coalition of 60 cities integrate nature-based solutions (NBS) into spatial planning, investments, and infrastructure implementation to reduce their climate risks. We will develop toolkits, policy notes, and guidance documents. We will also set up a Project Preparation Facility (PPF) to disseminate these products, build the capacity of city stakeholders, provide customized technical assistance to cities, and eventually, deploy grants, loans, and equity for NBS projects.

3b. Build the climate resilience of the urban poor

We will work with the Building Community Resilience for the Urban Poor (BCRUP) program, led by UN-Habitat and a coalition of partners, to integrate and prioritize the resilience of vulnerable and marginalized communities in 140 urban areas. We will mainstream climate resilience of vulnerable and marginalized communities in city-level plans and national level commitments (NAPs, NDCs) to ensure that plans to upgrade infrastructure for the urban poor and informal settlements are prioritized and integrate climate resilience.

Fact Sheet: Learn more about the Urban Poor Initiative

3c. Support cities with floating urban development

Working with Blue21 and other partners, we will form a coalition with 25 coastal cities to build climate resilience by exploring and developing options for floating urban development, by offering knowledge, awareness, technical support and potential financial arrangements. With this coalition we will design, research and realize floating projects in delta cities worldwide, in order to create space for new ecosystems and enable bio-based economies to flourish. In this way we will make cities more resilient by addressing fundamental challenges such as climate change, urbanization, population growth, and land scarcity. We will develop technical knowledge, demonstrate good practices, formulate guidance documents and build the capacity of coastal city stakeholders. We will also set up a Project Preparation Facility (PPF) to develop and mainstream floating projects in coastal cities.

3d. Support a network of cities to develop and implement more resilient water systems

We will launch an urban water action platform, which will provide a vision for integrated water action and galvanize political commitment for cities to act on context-specific water challenges through a peer-partner network. In Africa, we will build a coalition of partners to develop and implement water resilience actions in six pilot cities, eventually scaling to a pan-African network of cities. We will model a similar effort in India, more focused on access issues, by launching an Accelerate Access Coalition (AACO) to support access to decentralized climate resilient, affordable, reliable water and sanitation systems & solutions for urban poor communities in India.

Fact sheets: Learn more about the Africa Urban Water Resilience and India Urban Water Resilience projects