Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-6 (section)

=== 6.4.4 Limits of Adaptation Capacity at the Institutional Level ===

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In delivering adaptation in cities, settlements and infrastructure, however, there is a need to understand and measure the adaptive capacity and limits to manage future risks in communities, institutions and organisations (Filho et al., 2019). However efforts to track urban adaptation lack consistent methods, metrics and data gathering (Olazabal et al., 2019b). The scale of complex, cascading challenges, limited finance and governance capacity, combined with the impacts of growing social inequality and sustainable development priorities can result in both soft and hard limits on cities government’s capacity to adapt to climate change ( [[#Chanza--2018|Chanza, 2018]] ; Sanchez Rodriguez, Ürge-Vorsatz and Barau, 2018; Lehmann et al., 2015; Di Giulio et al., 2018). Hard limits to adaptation are identified when it is unfeasible to avoid severe risks, while soft limits exist when technological and socioeconomic options are not immediately deployable ( [[#IPCC--2014|IPCC, 2014]] ). In urban contexts, soft limits may become hard limits when large numbers of people are unable to avoid severe climate-related risks of loss and damage (Mechler et al., 2020). Climate change-related loss and damage that are intangible also require more caution in assessment processes ( [[#Roberts--2018|Roberts and Pelling, 2018]] ; Andrei et al., 2015; Barnett et al., 2016; [[#Thomas--2018|Thomas and Benjamin, 2018]] ). Incorporating Indigenous knowledge can identify people-oriented and place-specific scenarios, leading to development of urban adaptation policies that foster identity, dignity, self-determination and better collective decision making/capacity to act ( [[#McShane--2017|McShane, 2017]] ; [[#Preston--2017|Preston, 2017]] ), and are also sensitive to the local context and limits of community adaptation ( [[#Makondo--2018|Makondo and Thomas, 2018]] ).

Urban transformations represent forms of adaptation that challenge the principles in which a society is established (Pelling, O’Brien and Matyas, 2015) and can be deployed to go beyond the existing limits of development justice and climate change adaptation capacity. While not all adaptation will be transformative, transformative capacities support both ongoing adaptation efforts and the broader systemic change processes that align adaptation efforts with decarbonisation requirements and the delivery of SDGs. ‘Urban transformative capacity’ focuses on understanding what elements of a system to respond to external changing conditions in a manner that transforms the system toward a more sustainable state (Ziervogel, Cowen and Ziniades, 2016). The capacities required to deliver adaptation action in cities and settlements are ‘transformative capacities’, because they move away from thinking of adaptation as an adjustment to a changing external environment to think instead of it as a reconfiguration of infrastructures and institutions to build resilience in the surrounding environment ( [[#Pelling--2010|Pelling, 2010]] ; [[#Matyas--2015|Matyas and Pelling, 2015]] ). Reflective and iterative learning is integral to fostering transformative capacity (c.f. Luederitz et al., 2017). Transformative capacity extends across multiple agency levels or geographical locations, as well as various domains (Wilson et al., 2013; Olsson, Bodin and Folke, 2010; Keeler et al., 2019b). The components of transformative capacity in cities and settlements can be grouped into three categories (see Table 6.9): (1) agency and forms of interaction, (2) development processes and (3) relational dimensions (Wolfram, 2016). Alongside different forms of technical expertise, there is a need to broaden the interventions of disadvantaged populations in urban sustainability (Wolfram, Borgström and Farrelly, 2019).

Table 6.9 presents a defined framework of ideas that local institutions, mostly local governments, can put into practice to improve their adaptive capacity. Enabling transformative capacity requires novel governance arrangements based on broad participation, a diversity of actor networks, socially embedded leadership and empowerment of communities, alongside an understanding of the system dynamics, which refers to system awareness, collective visions, practical experimentation, reflexivity, capacity building, institutional mainstreaming and the multiple levels of agency or scales (Ziervogel, Cowen and Ziniades, 2016; [[#Ziervogel--2019a|Ziervogel, 2019a]] ; [[#Wolfram--2019|Wolfram, 2019]] ; [[#Hölscher--2020|Hölscher and Frantzeskaki, 2020]] ; Castán Broto et al., 2018). Many of the transformative capacity components are already visible in local adaptation actions, but many efforts emphasise one element at the expense of others without delivering a systemic perspective. In particular, measures to facilitate the empowerment of communities, reflexivity and social learning are rare but often point toward heightened capacities for transformative, alongside incremental, adaptation (Castán Broto et al., 2018). Transformative capacity frameworks may foster inclusive governance to deliver risk management that works for the poor in countries such as South Africa ( [[#Ziervogel--2019a|Ziervogel, 2019a]] ).

'''Table 6.9 |''' Components of urban transformative capacity with broader relevance for multiple forms of adaptation (Wolfram, 2016).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2"| Component

! Manifests in…

|-
| rowspan="6"| '''Agency and interaction'''

| '''Inclusive, multiform urban governance (C1)'''

Participation/inclusiveness (C1.1)

| Citizens and/or civil society organisations participating directly in planning and/or decision making processes.

|-
| Diverse governance modes / Networks (C1.2)

| Different and various stakeholders working together and building connections between sectors in different manners.

|-
| Sustained intermediaries and hybridization (C1.3)

| An intermediary positioned between the stakeholders of a project.

|-
| '''Transformative leadership (C2)'''

| Leadership acting as a collaborative driving force in an initiative.

|-
| '''Empowered communities (C3)'''

'''Social needs (C3.1)'''

| Either analysing or addressing social needs.

|-
| Autonomous communities (C3.2)

| Integrating into the design of the project different aspects of community empowerment.

|-
| rowspan="7"| '''Development processes'''

| '''System awareness (C4)'''

Baseline analysis and system(s) awareness (C4.1)

| Agendas aiming to tackle sustainability challenges after deliberate analysis of urban systems.

|-
| Recognition of path dependencies (C4.2)

| Explicitly tackling systemic barriers to change.

|-
| '''Foresight (C5)'''

Co-production of knowledge (C5.1)

| Involvement of various and multiple stakeholders in knowledge production processes.

|-
| A collective vision for change (C5.2)

| An explicit future vision shared among stakeholders as a means for motivating partners and fostering commitments.

|-
| Alternative scenarios, future pathways (C5.3)

| Comparative scenarios that evaluate the mutual shaping of social, ecological, economic and technological dimensions.

|-
| '''Experimentation with disruptive solutions (C6)'''

| The deliberate use of experiments or ideas that seek to challenge the existing landscape of established policies, technologies or social practices.

|-
| '''Innovation embedding (C7)'''

Resources for capacity development (C7.1)

| Project stakeholders sharing resources for capacity development outside the project to disseminate and multiply results.

|-
|
| Mainstreaming transformative action (C7.2)

| Attempts to generalise the project operation or results beyond the initial context of an application.

|-
|
| Regulatory frameworks (C7.3)

| A new regulation was established as a result of the project or as part of the project activities.

|-
| rowspan="3"| '''Relational dimensions'''

| '''Reflexivity and social learning (C8)'''

| Stakeholders reflecting on learning and capacity building processes.

|-
| '''Working across human agency levels (C9)'''

| Project activities contributing to capacity development across human agency levels.

|-
| '''Working across levels and scales (C10)'''

| Project activities contributing to building capacity across geographical or political–administrative levels.

|}

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