194 ■ CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE
“proactive” experiences have been studied and documented to some extent (see
the special issues of Environment and Urbanization [2007] and Habitat Debate
[2009]). Th is chapter goes beyond the investigation of “good practices” and
explores the variety of adaptation options that cities have started to implement.
It draws on the experience of eight cities—Bogota, Cape Town, Delhi, Pearl
River Delta, Pune, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo, and Singapore—and compares
their progress toward adaptation. Th e chapter focuses on two related questions:
What motivates early adaptors to develop and implement adaptation plans?
and What obstacles may explain the reluctance of some cities to take on the
adaptation challenge? Th e eight cities were selected to refl ect a diversity of con-
ditions, including climatic zones, political-administrative organization, steer-
ing capacity, and state of progress toward adaptation planning and action. At
the same time, they are large urban agglomerations that can be expected to play
an important role in further advancing the global adaptation agenda.
Th e concept of coping capacity, defi ned as the ability to manage both the
causes of environmental change and the consequences of that change, is central
to this study (Tompkins and Adger 2005). Coping capacity is dependent on the
availability of resources, authority, human capital, and social capital, as well as
the ability to manage information, the availability of technological innovation,
and public perception of attribution (Yohe 2001). It also depends on normative
or motivational contexts (Haddad 2005) as well as human behavior and choices
(Burch and Robinson 2007). Based on this, we take the view that response
action to climate change depends on both the ability and willingness of (single
and collective) actors to take action. In this context, we explore coping capacity
to better understand the opportunities and obstacles to adaptation and how
they translate into scenarios of response or nonresponse.
Th e fi rst section of this chapter provides relevant background information
on the cases, including demographics, spatial location, administrative organi-
zation, annual temperature and precipitation, scenario trends, and whether the
locations have national and local adaptation frameworks and action plans. Th e
second section reports on the individual exposure of cities to climate change
and shows the climate-related trends and existing local driving forces. As all
the cases confi rm, climate change exacerbates many existing vulnerabilities.
In the third section, we turn to coping capacity and explore how and to what
extent cities are integrating climate change into local strategies and action. Th is
pertains to questions of temporal scales, multisectoral structures and coordina-
tion, strategic orientation, new priorities, and governance arrangements. Th e
fourth section provides an analysis across all eight cases of the opportunities
and motivating factors that drive or obstruct adaptation planning and action.
In the fi nal section, we elaborate on our recommendations for policy and
research. Th e source papers (individual case reports) are available from the