‘Radical interventions’ needed for cities adapting to climate change

Global adaptation scholars have called for better city planning, leadership, and support for developing nations at day three of Adaptation Futures 2025 (AF2025).

The focus of today’s conference - the world’s premier climate change adaptation event – was on how cities can adapt to climate change and managed retreat options. AF2025 brings together international practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and businesses to collaborate and inspire efforts to accelerate adaptation for a resilient climate and fairer future.

Professor Katrina Brown of the University of Exeter said the fact that Ōtautahi Christchurch was hosting the event following its devastating 2010 and 2011 earthquakes was special and has provided a stark reminder of the difficulties for developing nations in managing significant environmental crises. 

“I have been impressed with Christchurch,” she said. “It’s been fascinating to see the post-quake development but the lesson for me is that New Zealand is a developed country with the resources to put into rebuilding the city, and after nearly 15 years there are gaps where buildings are still being constructed. What does that mean for poorer countries with fewer financial resources to draw on? It really shows this takes long-term recovery and that careful planning and long-term thinking are necessary.”

Professor Brown’s research looks at how individuals and societies understand and respond to change, and their different capacities for adaptation and transformation. She has advised international research programmes and led collaborative and international research teams to examine the interactions between environmental change, poverty and policy.

Winston Chow, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Co-Chair, Working Group II, and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Urban Climate at Singapore Management University have also been at the conference facilitating presentations on adaptation to extreme heat in cities. “City planning is where the action is,” Winston said. “The fastest growing cities in most places are secondary cities, not major cities, so with that growth comes more emissions but also more opportunities to reduce those emissions as well as minimising impacts and urban vulnerabilities. Those are the challenges that have been reflected well in several of the sessions here at Adaptation Futures.”

Today, Winston also discussed managed retreat options that have included looking to places that can be protected, prioritising them as spaces of value and diverting flood waters away to keep areas of high cultural and social values in cities protected from sea level rise.

“AF2025 has been very, very enjoyable,” he said. “There’s a lot of fantastic research from Aotearoa and the South Pacific and we’re seeing a lot of great early career research. It’s very exciting to see the next generation of scholars emerge in this conference, it’s been a blast.”

The conference, which is co-hosted by WASP and Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury, closes tomorrow (Thursday).