Share this on social media
As climate impacts hit, cities are still struggling to prepare, researchers warn
(Reuters News, 22 Oct 2019) Less than half of cities have plans in place to deal with climate change impacts, even though most are experiencing them now, data shows.
More than two in three cities around the world already are noticing the effects of climate change, from more heatwaves to worsening flooding, but few have effective plans in place to deal with the threats, researchers warned Tuesday.
Budget restrictions are a key reason cities say they are failing to act, particularly on serious long-term threats such as surging demand on public health systems as a shifting climate brings more heat risks and new disease threats, they said.
"The scientific fact is that all cities are going to be affected in a severe way in the long term" by climate change, said Kyra Appleby, global director of cities, states and regions for CDP, a charity that runs a global disclosure project on environmental risks.
Last year, 530 cities around the world - home to 517 million people - reported on the climate hazards they face to the London-based CDP.
Just under half said they had done a vulnerability assessment on their climate risks - but those who had were almost six times more likely to have taken actions to prepare their infrastructure, services or people for the risks, the report said.
"Infrastructure that they are building now is going to be used for hundreds of years," Appleby told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Reuters News, 22 Oct 2019: As climate impacts hit, cities are still struggling to prepare, researchers warn
