Financing Urban Adaptation to Address Climate Change

On March 23 and 24, Penn IUR, Perry World House (PWH), and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy (KCEP) jointly convened three dozen urban policy and finance leaders to find ways to spur investment in urban adaptation to climate change. Financing Urban Adaptation to Address Climate Change included eight expert panels highlighting the implementation and financing of subnational programs and projects designed to adapt to global warming-induced hazards that threaten urban lives and livelihoods.

“Urban climate adaptation will be central to human well-being in a world where 70 or more percent of the world’s population by mid-century is living in cities—and no doubt suffering from what will most likely be well above 1.5 degrees Celsius warming,” said Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor and Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University, in his keynote address.  “It's so important that you are getting together this group of experts to think about this issue.”

Over the course of two days, participants shaped a five-point roadmap to stimulate funding in support of urban adaptation to climate change, from (1) mapping needs, (2) coordinating adaptation and mitigation, (3) determining appropriate policy instruments, (4) supporting governmental subsidiarity, to (5) designing new financing approaches. Penn IUR Co-Director Eugénie Birch and KCEP, PWH, and Penn IUR Fellow Mauricio Rodas fleshed out the roadmap more fully in their article for Penn IUR’s Urban Link.

The two-day workshop was part of the City Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Financing Initiative (C2IFI), a joint initiative of PWH, Penn IUR, and KCEP and led by Rodas. C2IFI is building knowledge and facilitating knowledge-sharing to enable mayors, city officials, and municipal stakeholders to find partners, data, financing instruments, best practices, funding models, and experts to assist them with project preparation and advance climate-resilient infrastructure.

See below for the conference schedule and links to videos of panel discussions. 

March 23: Urban Climate Adaptation Finance Observed

8:30-8:50 Welcome, Keynote Address, The Landscape of Urban Adaptation Finance: Challenges and Opportunities

• Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor and Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

The speaker will discuss climate adaptation projects and their pathways especially those most relevant to cities and metropolitan areas He will outline key challenges and opportunities for funding.

Key Questions:

• What political, regulatory, social and economic obstacles are preventing cities from developing and financing adaptation projects?
• How can these challenges be addressed, and what are the opportunities that lie ahead?

8:50-10:00 Session 1. Response: Current Urban Adaptation Finance Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities 

Speakers from the public, private and non-governmental sectors will respond to the keynote.

Key Questions:

• Do you agree with the keynote, if so, why? If not why?
• Does the term “creative resilient development,” recently publicized by the IPPC, present a feasible approach for garnering more funding for urban adaptation projects?

Speakers:

• Sameh Wahba, Global Director, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, World Bank
• Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute and The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Co-Chair, Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN)
• Mark Watts, Executive Director, C40 Cities
• Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor, Bogotá, Colombia

Moderator: Mauricio Rodas, former Mayor of Quito, Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania

10:00-11:00 Session 2. Integrating Silos: Urban Planning for Adaptation and Resilience 

Many cities have adaptation or resilience strategies but these plans are lacking alignment internally (interagency) or externally (national) and resulting funding streams focus on sectoral solutions not comprehensive approaches.

Key Questions:

• Can cities employ urban planning to break down silos as they develop plans, projects and funding strategies for urban adaptation? That is, can planning serve as an enabler for urban adaptation finance?
• Can urban planning outputs encompass cross cutting themes, like adaptation and resilience, that unify work streams across agencies?
• Can cities use urban planning to identify and prioritize crucial actions on resilience building in the short, medium and long -term?

Speakers:

• Aromar Revi, Director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
• Michael Berkowitz, Founding Principal, Resilient Cities Catalyst
• Sheela Patel, Founding Director, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers

Moderator: Eugenie Birch, Co-Director Penn Institute for Urban Research

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:45 Session 3. Financing Adaptation Public Utilities and Services in Urban Areas 

Urban adaptation focuses on infrastructure to reduce exposure, protect vulnerable populations, and moderate hazard damage related to climate change. Included are water (from flooding to drought to domestic supply issues), all forms of transportation (from personal mobility to logistics), telecommunications, open space, and the building stock. The need to develop or retrofit , maintain and service or even relocate robust infrastructure in the face of increasingly severe climate change effects is immense.

Key Questions:

• What is the current and anticipated adaptation infrastructure gap in cities?
• What financial mechanisms are being proposed and implemented to fill this gap?
• Are there certain infrastructure projects that are more attractive to potential funders than others?
• If so, is there a way to package the attractive and less attractive projects to open up funding sources?
• Are any cities valuing and leveraging public assets to fund the adaptation projects?

Speakers:

• David Dodman, Lead Author, Chapter 6 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Director, Human Settlements, International Institute for Environment and Development
• Tatiana Gallego-Lizon, Chief, Housing and Urban Development, Climate Change Sector, IADB
• Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President, Program Strategy and Chief of Staff, Rockefeller Foundation

Moderator: Matthijs Bouw, Professor of Practice, Department of Landscape Architecture, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

12:45-2:00 Lunch Break

2:00-3:30 Session 4. Adaptation to Face Natural Disasters

Cities are experiencing extensive and costly damage due to such increasingly severe natural disasters as hurricanes, floods, droughts, forest fires, among others. How to address them is well-known but many solutions are extremely costly and time consuming.

Key Questions:

• How can cities identify and prioritize needed climate-resilient hard and soft infrastructure and related projects in advance of natural disasters?
• What responsibilities do upper-level governments have in assisting cities undertake projects that moderate the effects of natural disasters?
• What financing arrangements exist to support these efforts ?

Speakers:

• Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General, Insurance Development Fund
• Sophie Evans, Associate Director, Centre for Disaster Protection
• Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy, Director, Global Strategic Partnerships and Development; Senior Advisor North America, Resilient Cities Network
• Dominick Dusseau, Research Associate, Woodwell Climate Research Center
• Tadashi Matsumoto, Head, Sustainable Urban Development Unit, OECD

Moderator: Koko Warner, Manager, Climate Impacts, Vulnerability and Risks Subprogram, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN Climate Change), Visiting Fellow, Perry World House

3:30-3:45 Break

3:45- 5:15 Session 5. Adapting to Extreme Temperatures in Cities 

The world is experiencing record-breaking extreme temperatures, recently documented for the United States by the New York Times. This is a global trend that promises to occur in the future with negative health, economic and political effects. For example, extreme heat causes more deaths than all other climate-related hazards combined, yet most people are unaware of its deadly effects since it is not visually shocking as are hurricanes or floods.

Key Questions:

• How can local governments raise public awareness about these threats?
• How are cities facing and funding projects to respond to the multiple challenges of extreme temperatures?

Speakers:

• Morgan Richmond, Senior Analyst Climate Policy Initative
• Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor, Freetown, Sierra Leone
• Kate Gallego, Mayor, Phoenix, Arizona
• Eleni Myrivilli, Chief Heat Officer, City of Athens, Greece
• Jane Gilbert, Chief Heat Officer, Miami Dade County, Florida

Moderator: Kurt Shickman, Director, Extreme Heat Initiatives, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center

March 24: Tools for Urban Adaptation Finance

8:30-8:35 Message from Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN Undersecretary and Executive Director, UN Habitat

8:35-9:00 Keynote Address: The Challenge of Effectively Communicating the Urban Adaptation Urgency

Simon Richter, Class of 1942 Endowed Term Professor of German, Department Chair, Germanic Languages and Literatures, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

Video of introductions, message from Maimunah Mohd Sharif, and keynote address from Simon RIchter

9:00-10:30 Session 6. Financing the clean energy transition for building climate resilience

Building climate resilience demands addressing the impacts of weather on existing energy infrastructure and its operation, as well as considering the impacts of long‑term climate change on newly planned infrastructure.

Key Questions:

• How can cities foster the energy transition for climate adaptation?
• What are the available financing mechanisms for investing in the desired clean energy transition?
• What success stories from around the world could be scalable and replicable?

Speakers:

• Eli Hopson, CEO DC Green Bank
• Drazen Kucan, Senior Urban Development and Energy Efficiency Specialist, Green Climate Fund
• Daniel Morris, Clean Energy Lead, Climate Investment Fund

Moderator: Angela Pachon, Research Director, Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:15 Session 7. The Role of the Private Sector on Urban Adaptation

Given the high cost of urban adaptation, the public sector (encompassing multi-lateral development bank lending, bi-lateral and national support, and own source revenues), has insufficient resources to meet the need. While the private sector has capital but the question is how to unlock it to advance city resilience projects.

Key Questions

• How can cities use public sector resources to leverage private funding for urban adaptation?
• Are there specific private sector entities that have an interest and resources to invest in urban adaptation to be targeted?
• Where are the entry points for encouraging private sector involvement: - Industry-wide ESG spending standards for publicly owned companies- New reporting regulations for publicly owned companies - Revised creditworthiness evaluations that take into account climate risk assessments?

Speakers:

• Alice Charles, Lead, Cities, Infrastructure, and Urban Services, World Economic Forum
• Hazem Galal, Global Leader for Cities and Local Government, PwC-Middle East
• Jérôme Haegeli, Group Chief Economist-Managing Director, Swiss Re Institute
• Benjamin Yeoh, Senior Portfolio Manager, RBC Global Asset Management

Moderator: Jorge Gastelumendi, Director, Global Policy, Adrienne Arsht – Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center

12:15-1:15 Session 8. Wrap Up: The Future of Urban Adaptation Finance

Mayors lack political incentives to develop adaptation actions, while public and private financiers often look at them as unprofitable. However, there are many success stories that reveal that resilience infrastructure and capability building in cities can become a mutually beneficial endeavor for City Hall as well as for the private sector. Further, innovative approaches are on the drawing board.

Key Questions

• What are the best practices worth highlighting on urban adaptation finance?
• What kind of innovations or disruptions have the potential to be game-changers in the field?
• What are areas for additional research?

Speakers:

• Claudio Orrego, Governor, Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile
• Kathy Baughman McLeod, Director, Adrienne Arsht–Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, Senior Vice President, Atlantic Council
• James Alexander, CEO, UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association
• Seth Schultz, CEO, Resilience Rising
• Jonathan Maxwell, CEO, Sustainable Development Capital, LLP

Moderators: Eugenie Birch, Co-Director Penn Institute for Urban Research and Mauricio Rodas, former Mayor of Quito, Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania