Cities and towns are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and will need to find innovative ways to adapt. Now is the time to start rethinking urban design and management — yet few have taken concrete action.
With a changing climate, extreme events like these are predicted to occur more frequently. Two lines of action are needed globally to keep the future impacts of climate change within manageable boundaries. First, large cuts in greenhouse gas emissions must be made to stabilise temperature rise at below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Above this threshold, there is a risk that the impacts will be extremely difficult for contemporary societies to cope with. However, even if the 2 °C target is achieved, there will still be residual impacts throughout this century. The second line of action therefore involves putting in place adaptive measures.
Cities have an important role to play in both areas. They are already making substantial efforts to cut emissions, improve their energy efficiency and step up the use of renewable energy (see Urban frontrunners — cities and the fight against global warming). But in adaptation, we have seen much less progress to date.
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