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

=== 6.1.5 Changes in the Global Enabling Environment ===

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This section reports on changes in global enabling environment; the architecture of international agreements available to inform policy for national governments and others on urbanisation and climate adaptation, since the AR5.

Six new international agreements and initiatives have been achieved, each of which has far-reaching implications for the management of rapid urbanisation and climate change: the Paris Climate Agreement ( [[#United%20Nations--2015b|United Nations, 2015b]] ); the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the SDGs ( [[#United%20Nations--2015c|United Nations, 2015c]] ); the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction ( [[#UNISDR--2015|UNISDR, 2015]] ); the New Urban Agenda ( [[#United%20Nations--2016a|United Nations, 2016a]] ); Addis Ababa Action Agenda (July 2015); and the World Humanitarian Summit (May 2016). Table 6.2 summarises these.

'''Table 6.2 |''' International policy agreements with implications for urbanisation and climate adaptation

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Agreement

(date of agreement)

! Scope of agreement

! Relevance for cities, settlements and infrastructure

! Relevance for addressing climate change risk

|-
| Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

(March 2015)

| Global agreement for reducing disaster risks in all countries and at all levels.

Highlights urbanisation as a key driver of risk and resilience.

| Identifies rapid urbanisation as a key underlying risk factor for disasters and driver of resilience.

Promotes shift from disaster response to disaster risk management and reduction through cooperation between national and local governments. Limited focus on the role of civil society.

| Highlights the need to respond to systemic risk, including compound and cascading risks and impacts from natural, technological and biological hazards. Includes focus on chronic stressors and sudden shocks through governance, planning, disaster response, post-event recovery.

|-
| Addis Ababa Action Agenda

(July 2015)

| Global agreement arising from the International Conference on Financing for Development ( [[#United%20Nations--2015a|United Nations, 2015a]] ) emphasized the need for adequate financing at all levels of government, especially sub-national and local, to support sustainable development, infrastructure and climate mitigation ( [[#UN-Habitat--2016b|UN-Habitat, 2016b]] ).

| Includes general comments on the importance of local actors and recognises the need for strengthening capacities of municipal and local governments.

Commits to ‘support’ local governments to ‘mobilise revenues as appropriate’.

Offers little on how to get finance to support local governments addressing these commitments.

| Financing a critical element of risk reduction in cities and settlements (see [[#6.4|Section 6.4]] ).

Underlying variability of institutional arrangements inhibits development of universal framework.

|-
| Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

(September 2015)

| Global agreement adopted by 193 governments that includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

| SDG11 speaks explicitly to making cities ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. Extensive reference to universal provision of basic services in other SDGs which will require substantial efforts in cities; equality and governance are also stressed.

Focuses on national goals and national monitoring with insufficient recognition of key roles of local and regional governments and urban civil society in addressing most of the SDGs.

| SDG13 on climate action requires action in cities and settlements.

Integrated approach can address underlying drivers of risk.

|-
| The Paris Agreement

(December 2015)

| Global agreement under UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: signed by 194 and ratified by 189 member states (05/01/21).

| References the role of the local or sub-national levels of government and cities as non-state actors.

| Encourages cities to develop specific agendas for climate action (mitigation and adaptation).

|-
| The World Humanitarian Summit

(May 2016)

| Not an agreement, but a summit of 180 member states generating over 3500 commitments to action and addressing the role of non-state actors in reducing risk of climate change related forced displacement of people.

| Includes five agreed ‘core responsibilities’ with relevance for urban areas, and commitments were made by professional associations, non-governmental organisations and networks of local authorities to address these in towns and cities.

| Climate change likely to shape flows of refugees and migrants who are likely to live in highly exposed areas, particularly in low-income cities. However ‘meagre funding for collaboration, poor data collection and sharing’ ( [[#Acuto--2016|Acuto, 2016]] ) limits commitment effectiveness ( [[#Speckhard--2016|Speckhard, 2016]] ).

|-
| The New Urban Agenda (October 2016)

| Global agenda adopted at UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) envisioned national urban policies and adaptation plans as a central device to inform sub-national governments addressing sustainable development.

| Intended as the global guideline for sustainable urban development for 20 years, seeking to provide coherence with other agreements. Focus on national policy and action. Limited recognition of urban governments or civil society as initiators and drivers of change.

| Clearly frames roles for cities within national and international systems in contributing to sustainability (including low-carbon development) and resilience (including adaptation). Frames the role for cities within national and international systems, including an ongoing assessment of their contribution to sustainability and resilience ( [[#Kaika--2017|Kaika, 2017]] ; Valencia et al., 2019).

|}

Alongside new international agreements are a series of new landmark global stocktake reports: three IPCC special reports including the IPCC 1.5 report ( [[#IPCC--2019a|IPCC, 2019a]] ; [[#IPCC--2019b|IPCC, 2019b]] Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2018), the UN Environment GEO6 (UN Environment, 2019) and IPBES 2019 ( [[#Brondizio--2019|Brondizio et al., 2019]] ), and UNDRR 2019 ( [[#UNDRR--2019|UNDRR, 2019]] ), each have argued for urgent action on climate mitigation and to invest in inclusive strategies for adaptation if the SDGs are to be met. These findings are comprehensively evidenced and do not need to be revisited here. Our starting point then is to assess the science on how inclusive, sustainable development can be delivered through enhanced adaptation to climate change risks.

As a blueprint for advancing human dignity, the SDGs emphasize the need to consider how to achieve a better and more sustainable future while ‘leaving no one behind.’ In doing so, they highlight an agenda focused on well-being, equality and justice. The objective for SDG11 is defined as: ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ with 10 associated targets including ensuring access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services; participatory planning; safeguarding heritage features; reducing disasters, particularly water related disasters and economic impacts on the poor; and promoting resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement plans, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Similarly, SDG9 aims to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation, with associated targets. The IPCC 1.5 special report emphasized that there are often co-benefits in pursuit of SDGs and adaptation strategies where ‘well-designed mitigation and adaptation responses can support poverty alleviation, food security, healthy ecosystems, equality and other dimensions of sustainable development’ ( [[#IPCC--2018|IPCC, 2018]] FAQ5.1). However there may also be negative trade-offs, for example between pursuit of growth and reducing climate change risk ( [[#International%20Council%20for%20Science--2017|International Council for Science, 2017]] ; [[#IPCC--2018|IPCC, 2018]] Executive Summary; Roy et al., 2018a).

The Paris Agreement also envisioned a significantly more active role for cities and other non-state actors in facilitating policy change (Hale, 2016), including through participation in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), although there is little systematic review of the contributions made by cities to NDCs (Hsu et al., 2020; [[#Bäckstrand--2017|Bäckstrand and Kuyper, 2017]] ). Over two-thirds, 113 out of 164, of initial Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), prior to ratification, had referenced urban responses in the context of sustainable development, climate mitigation and adaptation ( [[#UN-Habitat--2016a|UN-Habitat, 2016a]] ). Analysis of those INDCs revealed 58 focused on urban climate adaptation, 17 focused on both adaptation and mitigation, and 4 focused on mitigation ( [[#UN-Habitat--2017|UN-Habitat, 2017]] ). Simultaneously, multiple efforts have emerged to align the actions of nation states with those of other actors, including the UNFCC 2014 Global Climate Action Portal (Hsu, Weinfurter and Xu, 2017). While significant optimism has been gathered around the possibility to intervene at sub-national level, the most difficult challenge has been to establish a coherent view of the overall contribution that cities and settlements are making (Hale, 2016; Chan et al., 2015b). Although meeting the Paris goals will require staying within a ‘carbon budget’, supporting rapidly developing urban areas in the Global South to the same infrastructure level as developed cities may consume significant proportions of that budget ( [[#Bai--2018|Bai et al., 2018]] ).

There is increasing international effort among non-Party stakeholders to the Paris Climate Agreement to collaborate to meet the Paris Climate goals ( [[#Data%20Driven%20Yale%20New%20Climate%20Institute%20PBL--2018|Data Driven Yale New Climate Institute PBL, 2018]] ; Chan et al., 2015a). A review of contributions by non-state actors in 2019 by the EU Covenant of Mayors identified 10427 cities with climate commitments, while the Global Covenant of Mayors included 10543 cities representing a population of 969 million citizens ( [[#Palermo--2020|Palermo et al., 2020]] ; [[#Peduzzi--2020|Peduzzi et al., 2020]] ). International efforts also include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action ( [[#Data%20Driven%20Yale%20New%20Climate%20Institute%20PBL--2018|Data Driven Yale New Climate Institute PBL, 2018]] ). There is also a proliferation of new non-governmental and public-private actors that address both adaptation and mitigation in cities and settlements, including: the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, 100 Resilient Cities; the Global Resilient Cities Network, We Mean Business, and We Are Still In ( [[#Ireland--2019|Ireland and Clausen, 2019]] ) and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (Dean et al., 2016). However, there is as yet limited research into the effectiveness of these initiatives in enhancing medium and small city adaptation and limited documentation of climate adaptation actions by non-traditional agents, particularly in the Global South ( [[#Lamb--2019|Lamb et al., 2019]] ).

New urban activists and stakeholders, including youth, and Indigenous and minority communities and NGOs alongside business groups have also been visible in the global urban climate debate, pressing for faster, more far-reaching change ( [[#Frantzeskaki--2016|Frantzeskaki et al., 2016]] ; O’Brien, Selboe and Hayward, 2018; Alves, Campos and Penha-Lopes, 2019; [[#Smith--2018|Smith and Patterson, 2018]] ; [[#Crnogorcevic--2019|Crnogorcevic, 2019]] ; [[#Campos--2016|Campos et al., 2016]] ; [[#Hayward--2021|Hayward, 2021]] ). Emergent urban social movements for climate justice often build on established international networks including local activists such as Shack and Slum Dwellers International, while others are inspired by Indigenous movements and are focused on human rights, indigenous sovereignty and land claims, access to water, intergenerational justice, and gender and youth movements coordinated on social media ( [[#Agyeman--2016|Agyeman et al., 2016]] ; [[#Cohen--2018|Cohen, 2018]] ; [[#Ulloa--2017|Ulloa, 2017]] ; [[#Hayward--2021|Hayward, 2021]] ; [[#Prendergast--2021|Prendergast et al., 2021]] ). The emergence of climate justice movements in urban communities has the potential to reframe policy discussion in cities in ways that also bring inequality and climate justice to the fore ( [[#Sheller--2016|Sheller and Urry, 2016]] ), underscoring growing public calls for more far-reaching, transformative changes toward socially just urban transformations ( [[#Akbulut--2019|Akbulut et al., 2019]] ; [[#Foran--2019|Foran, 2019]] ; Vandepitte, Vandermoere and Hustinx, 2019; [[#Smith--2018|Smith and Patterson, 2018]] ).

This section demonstrates the consistency with which urban processes and places have been rising to the top of international agreements and agendas in the last 10 years ( [[#Bulkeley--2015|Bulkeley, 2015]] ; [[#van%20der%20Heijden--2018|van der Heijden et al., 2018]] ; [[#Knieling--2016|Knieling, 2016]] ). However, many cities, particularly smaller cities and informal settlements in the Global South where development is rapid, need greater support for local governance, more information, and more diverse sources of finance to meet the vision of global climate agreements (Greenwalt, Raasakka and Alverson, 2018; [[#Cohen--2019|Cohen, 2019]] ). Moreover, the response of many cities to climate change is often constrained by wider political, social and economic structures, development path dependences and high carbon lock in ( [[#Princeti--2016|Princeti, 2016]] ; [[#Johnson--2018|Johnson, 2018]] ; [[#Jordan--2015|Jordan et al., 2015]] ).

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