CoAct Database

Building Climate Resilience for the Urban Poor

Building the Climate Resilience of the Urban Poor, a new initiative coordinated by UN-Habitat, was presented at the Climate Action Summit in 2019, in New York. Building the Climate Resilience of the Urban Poor is placed under the Infrastructure, Cities and Local Action ‘track’ meant to deliver partnerships by and with national and local governments to unlock climate action and improve the lives of billions. Solutions are required in cities to increase adaptation putting the most vulnerable first. By 2030, 600 million urban poor will be directly exposed to climate change risks. A large majority live in inadequate housing on floodplains or clinging to slopes, at high risk of the impacts of climate change such as flooding, landslides, and extreme heat. As emphasized by scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “Risks are concentrated in informal settlements”.

The partners of this initiative have put together a collaborative approach to help 150 million urban poor adapt to climate change in informal settlements by 2023. In 140 ‘hotspot’ cities in 50 developing countries, the initiative is meant to support climate smart resilient spatial planning, infrastructure improvement, and enhance means of livelihoods. To that end, they will mobilize USD 15.2 billion over a four-year period. This represents a small fraction of the USD 140-300 billion needed per year for global adaptation by 2030 as estimated by UN-Environment. By 2030, the initiative has the ambition to reach support to about 600 million urban poor currently at risk of the impacts of climate change.