Understanding Climate Risks to the Urban Poor

Cities are increasingly areas of concentrated exposure for people and infrastructure to climate hazards and associated risks. Increased focus on urban climate adaptation is urgently needed to reduce the social and economic impacts of climate change, especially for the urban poor and populations experiencing the most vulnerable conditions. Although 90% of the people added to the planet before 2050 will be added in African and Asia cities alone, less than 10% of global climate finance for adaptation is invested in cities. In many cases, this gap in financing corresponds with a gap in the understanding of existing urban social and environmental vulnerabilities and how climate change is expected to impact these conditions.
USAID is supporting urban access to financing and technical assistance for adaptation and working with their partners to advance understanding of climate risk and opportunities for adaptation in cities. This session presents the results of a new global “urban climate adaptation opportunity analysis” conducted for over 4,000 cities in USAID partner countries. This global analysis with city-scale results allows for a comparative understanding of underlying social and environmental vulnerability and projected climate change risks across cities of different sizes and locations. The analysis answers the key questions:
Where are people most socially and economically vulnerable in cities?
Where are these communities already exposed to environmental risks (including air pollution, flooding, etc.)?, and
Where are these already exposed areas expected to experience increased risks in the face of future climate change?
This session will convene a panel of human geography and data science experts together with those working to advance urban climate adaptation programming at USAID and with their partners to explore the limitations and possibilities of this analysis, as well as how it can be utilized to inform investments and scale financing for urban adaptation action.