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9 - Cities and climate change

The challenges for governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

By
Patricia McCarney ,
Hilda Blanco ,
JoAnn Carmin  and
Michelle Colley
Edited by
Cynthia Rosenzweig ,
William D. Solecki ,
Stephen A. Hammer  and
Shagun Mehrotra
Patricia McCarney
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Hilda Blanco
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
JoAnn Carmin
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michelle Colley
Affiliation:
Acclimatise, Montreal, Canada
Cynthia Rosenzweig
Affiliation:
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
William D. Solecki
Affiliation:
Hunter College, City University of New York
Stephen A. Hammer
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Shagun Mehrotra
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

Introduction

Formulating and implementing effective climate action in cities poses a core set of challenges for city governance. This chapter addresses the need for an empowered governance of cities worldwide, if cities and nations are to successfully confront the challenges of climate change. City governments are constrained on a number of fronts when it comes to formulating and implementing climate action. Many city governments are weakened due to only limited power over and responsibility for key public services, including planning, housing, roads and transportation systems, water, land use, drainage, waste management, and building standards resources (McCarney, 2009). In many of the poorest cities of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, informal areas of the city do not have basic services such as waste collection, piped water, storm and surface drains, and sanitation systems. While all cities and their inhabitants are at risk, the poorest cities and the most vulnerable populations are most likely to bear the greatest burden of the storms, flooding, heat waves, and other impacts anticipated to emerge from global climate change. City governments often lack powers (with respect to higher orders of government – state and national) to raise the revenues required to finance infrastructure investments and address the climate change agenda. When governance capacity is weak and constrained, cities are limited in their abilities to take programmatic action on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change and Cities
First Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network
 , pp. 249 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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