Flooding and extreme heat are the top climate threats facing cities around the world, with tens of billions of dollars needed to help build resilience, especially in the Global South, concludes new analysis from CDP, the UK-based non-profit previously known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Out of 1,131 cities that reported their environmental data to CDP-ICLEI’s tracking system in 2023, 83% said they faced “significant” exposure to climate hazards, the organization said in a release. “Fresh data shows over half of cities report flooding (58%) and extreme heat (54%) as hazards, making them the worst climate hazards facing urban areas.” This was followed by drought (38%), heavy rain (35%), and wildfire risk (22%). Around two-thirds of cities said they expect these hazards to become more intense and more frequent in the future.
The report reveals a stark relationship between exposure to climate impacts and pre-existing vulnerability. Among the cities reporting flooding as a hazard, 98% said low-income households were at particular risk, while 77% flagged elderly populations as vulnerable. “Marginalized communities” were identified as being at particular risk of flooding by 67% of the reporting cities.
For cities reporting extreme heat, concern for the elderly was almost universal, at 97%. Concern for low-income people and children was also very high, at 75% and 73%, respectively.
Around one third of the 2,346 climate infrastructure projects that cities reported to CDP focused on adaptation and resilience, rather than emission reductions, the group said. This emphasis is even more pronounced in the Global South. With infrastructure projects to date collectively valued at US$47 billion, cities are looking for another $21 billion in investment.
This financing gap persists even as “global investment in addressing climate change has continuously increased over the past decade, reaching an all-time high of nearly US$1.3 trillion per year in 2021-2022.”
Efforts to meet the growing demand for climate resilience funding should include “designing more fit-for-purpose international and national financing mechanisms that can de-risk and incentivize capital mobilization for city climate actions in low-income countries,” Maia Kutner, CDP director for cities, states and regions, told Cities Today. She also called for “more robust, accurate, and timely project disclosure” to close the data gap on local climate investment needs and opportunities, “helping to identify replicable solutions and pointing out target areas for investment and technical assistance.”
“As the world enters new and dangerous climate territory, shattering temperature records month after month, there is a golden thread that brings clarity, enables management of the problem, and unlocks climate finance and action—data,” Kutner said in the release. “Only data can give cities the insights they need to manage, mitigate, and adapt to the impacts of our rapidly changing planet.”
She urged communities to report their environmental data to the CDP-ICLEI database to help build “renewed clarity of direction” on cities’ response to the climate emergency.
