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Adapting Cities to Climate Change:

Opportunities and Constraints

Dirk Heinrichs, Rimjhim Aggarwal, Jonathan Barton,

Erach Bharucha, Carsten Butsch, Michail Fragkias,

Peter Johnston, Frauke Kraas, Kerstin Krellenberg,

Andrea Lampis, Ooi Giok Ling, and Johanna Vogel

Introduction

Adaptation of cities to climate change had not been a prominent issue in aca-
demic and political debate on societal responses to global climate change for a
long time (IIED 2007). Th e associated concern is that increased attention on
adaptation would reduce the pressure for mitigation action—and thus foster
(or at least indirectly allow) the continuing emission of anthropogenic green-
house gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. Th is perspective is starting to change.
Today adaptation is increasingly seen as an essential and integral part of pro-
posed and implemented climate policy. Th e recent Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) Report (IPCC 2007, 7) states: “Th ere is high agreement
and much evidence that with current climate change mitigation policies and
related sustainable development practices, global GHG emissions will continue
to grow over the next few decades.” In the meantime, cities and their residents
have no choice other than to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Th is view
coincides with a growing political voice for adaptation mainly in countries and
cities that are likely to be aff ected most severely (Pielke and others 2007).
Cities around the world have started to design and implement adaptation
strategies, oft en independent of existing national planning frameworks. Th ese

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Th is work was a collaborative initiative by associates of the Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Core
Th eme of the International Human Dimensions Programme. It was supported by the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development and the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association