Cities need $72bn boost to protect residents from climate change, CDP reveals
An analysis of the climate mitigation and adaptation plans of 800 major cities has found that one in four does not have the budget to protect their residents from climate impacts like floods.
Pictured: Flooding in Texas following Storm Harvey in 2017
Conducted by CDP, the analysis looks at the data disclosed through the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System by 812 cities in 2020. Collectively, these cities are set to represent some 5% of the world’s population by the end of the decade.
While CDP welcomes the fact that more cities are disclosing using the system than ever before, with just 48 cities having used it in 2011, the analysis raises several red flags in terms of climate adaptation – preparing cities for environmental impacts that are already ‘locked in’.