This year has seen unprecedented extreme weather events across the world, from record breaking temperatures, to flooding, to forest fires, to increasing (or at least increasingly well documented) air pollution. Meanwhile, the opportunity clock to make the changes required to keep global average temperature increases within 2 degree C of warming (much less the 1.5 degree C threshold) is ticking. As set out in the most recent UNFCCC report on the effects of climate change, the impacts of global warming will be most sharply felt in lower-to-middle income countries (LMICs).

Yet, as set out in a new report by Artha Global, LMICs need to deal with the challenges of both adapting to and mitigating climate change while also dealing with large scale urbanization. The shift to cities is welcome – no country has gone from low to middle to high income without dramatically urbanising. But the form and function of the new cities and new urban infrastructure that will be built across the developing world will not only shape their countries’ demands for energy and resources, but also concentrate populations in areas that are often vulnerable to environmental change. Features such as access to the coast that have shaped economic geography will take on new meaning as sea levels rise, for example.

This Dialogue explored how sustainable urbanisation in LMICs can be better supported, considering the growing interdependence of national and international efforts required for achieving net zero. Participants deliberated upon the imperative of joint action and the forms and structures that global, national and sub-national institutions must assume in order to enable the four key pathways and the necessary reforms.

Three key questions guided the session:

    1. 1.  What are the kinds of governance and institutional arrangements that LMICs need to establish nationally in order to improve climate action in their cities? What changes do we need in the way that LMIC cities are represented and incorporated in international arena(s)

 

    1. 2. How can international dialogues and city networks better bring attention to and better support the challenges faced by LMIC cities? How can they better be used as a platform to shape more sustainable LMIC strategies for urbanization and international partners to support these shifts?

 

    1. 3. How can finance be best leveraged to support LMIC cities and drive institutional reform? What mechanisms and sources are best suited for providing such support?