Resilience and preparedness are vital conditions for safeguarding the future of our cities. Stefan Wagner, Head of Germany’s Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability in Bonn, illuminates the city’s new role as an MCR2030 Global Resilience Hub.
India has a long tradition of building climate-friendly houses. But in the case of informal settlements, applying this knowledge presents many difficulties. This leads to intense heat stress for residents. However, there is hope on the horizon, as we highlight an exciting initiative: utilising innovative design solutions for thermal comfort in community buildings in Chennai and Coimbatore - an Urban Living Lab approach.
The impacts of climate change are heavily felt by urban dwellers in Bangladesh – especially in the informal settlements of fast-growing cities. The ERUP project aims to provide solutions that will enable communities to build resilience against the negative effects of climate change.
Quito bears the brunt of climate change, from 100-year storms to mudslides to heat waves – all part of the city’s ‘new normal.’ Urban journalist Mark Douglas Wessel explores how Ecuador’s capital is leveraging the power of Nature-based Solutions to cope with these challenges.
With more than half of the global population living in urban areas, cities need new solutions to tackle climate-related challenges. Erik van Eekelen, Matthijs Bouw, Reinder Brolsma and Harro Wieringa on the approach of Building with Nature.
Breathing new life into city architecture through native materials and construction techniques will catalyse lasting change and adaptability amidst unpredictable climate change-related incidences. Kweku Addo-Atuah on a return to Ghana's architectural heritage.
To get cities back on track to avoid building towards a climate crisis, actions must start today. Donovan Storey and Etta Madete Mukuba on sustainable design principles, alternative building materials, and technologies.
Climate change is the biggest challenge our cities are currently facing. Lance Jay Brown on the urgent need to transform them – and on the many ideas on how to do it.
Reducing carbon emissions is no longer enough to reduce the effects of climate change, making climate adaptation – the process of adjustment to climate change and entailing hazards – necessary. Cristina Bernal Aparicio takes a look at Spain's climate adaptation plan, its flaws, and its potential.
The impact of climate change is especially concentrated in urban areas and is projected to increase in the future. Using climate information in urban planning, however, can build resilient cities and enable sustainable development. By Saskia Buchholz from the German Meteorological Service.
When disasters hit, cultural heritage is often perceived as something passive, something hit by destruction. Conservation architect and risk management expert Rohit Jigyasu argues for a different perception: one that acknowledges the decisive role urban cultural heritage can play both in the prevention and in the outcome of natural disaster, making it an active component of urban resilience.
The 2019 SDG Summit will mark the first quadrennial review of the 2030 Agenda. It assesses where we are, how far we have come since its adoption – and what needs to be done, as we enter the next decade, to achieve the ambitious global goals to leave no one and no place behind.
At the Climate Action Summit, it is widely acknowledged that cities are key in addressing climate change. Yet, sufficient funding for necessary measures is often hard to come by. Barbara Buchner presents some new and promising approaches of mobilising finance for building resilient urban infrastructure.
With the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit up ahead next week, UN-Habitat's Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif explains why ambitious climate action depends on cities and presents four new initiatives, which will be launched at the Summit.
Current design standards for building infrastructure are based on outdated, historic climate data. In the face of climate change, planning, operation, maintenance, and management of infrastructure need to be revised, says urban environmental planner Riya Rahiman.
