Cities and Climate Change

 

Project: Supporting Cities in Addressing Climate Change Challenges: Enhancing Joint Work among Cities Alliance Members
 
Partners: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-Habitat and the World Bank
 
Activities: In 2009, an important collaboration among Cities Alliance members was created to address the challenges posed by climate change. Its goal is to create a more coordinated, focused and long-term response to the impact of climate change on cities, especially in developing countries. With the Cities Alliance as convener and facilitator, the combined efforts of UNEP, UN-Habitat and the World Bank have contributed to substantial progress in work on cities and climate change.
 
One of the important contributions of the JWP is consensus building on a protocol to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The new protocol enables cities to follow a standardised approach, making analysis and learning across cities easier. In addition, a common, verifiable metric helps attract additional finance for cities grappling with limited funds for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
 
The JWP has also led to the creation of useful tools for better urban management in the context of climate change. The Urban Risk Assessment provides cities with a common framework to assess disaster and climate risk for better decision making, urban planning and risk management.
A dynamic Mayors’ Task Force on Climate Change, Disaster Risk and the Urban Poor has been created to support city leaders as they attempt to understand these issues, identify good practice examples, and propose policy and investment programmes to improve the resilience of the urban poor.
 
An online Knowledge Centre on Cities and Climate Change (K4C) serves as a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices.
 
 
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