EPILOGUE ■ 265ing Cities to Climate Change,” Heinrichs and others show us that early action
requires strong leadership, risk awareness, interpersonal and interinstitutional
interaction, dedicated climate teams, and enhanced fi nancial capacity. In
“Understanding and Improving Urban Responses to Climate Change,” Sanchez
Rodriguez emphasizes the role of urban planning in cultivating climate-resilient
cities and questions whether planning institutions currently have the vision,
capacity, and fl exibility to guide future urban growth in resilient directions. He
notes that collaboration among scientists, planners, policy makers, and urban
stakeholders is paramount. Overall, the papers in this area have perhaps weakly
addressed the issue of policy instruments and their implementation. However,
several papers illustrate that institutional capacity, forms of governance, and
other factors are fundamental to the success of policy instruments.
Current discussions about climate change mitigation and adaptation take
place in a range of forums and involve diff erent sets of stakeholders and insti-
tutions. Mitigation is oft en seen as a globally salient topic and is typically an
intensely political issue. In contrast, adaptation is usually undertaken at the
local scale and is less politically sensitive. Both strategies, however, should be
integrated through the concept of urban resilience building. Th e shortcom-
ings associated with planning separately for mitigation and adaptation include
missed opportunities for developing effi cient infrastructure and fi nancially
optimal climate solutions. Certainly there are no silver bullets for governance
and institutional solutions. Every city is diff erent, and each requires diff erent
sets of solutions suited to its social, economic, institutional, and cultural con-
text. Ultimately, we should strive for an integrated approach to resilience, char-
acterized by better coordination and coherent planning and governance.
Economic and Social Aspects of Climate Change in Cities
Chris Kennedy and Elliot Cohen
Th e papers in this area, discussing the social and economic dimensions of cli-
mate change, provide several key fi ndings. In particular, the papers demon-
strate the enormous social challenges faced by the urban poor in adapting to
climate change and the inadequacy of current fi nancing mechanisms to address
these challenges. Some approaches to meet these fi nancial demands are pro-
posed, highlighting the specifi c roles of the private sector, community organi-
zations, and local governments. Broader economic issues also are associated
with climate change, such as potential changes to industry strategy and con-
sumer preferences.
Th e uneven social impacts of climate change in urban areas and the distribu-
tion of risks among populations is stressed by Bartlett and others in their com-
missioned paper “Social Aspects of Climate Change in Urban Areas in Low- and