By Tatiana Saraseko.
As of 2024, over half of the global population resides in urban areas, a figure projected to surge to nearly 70% by 2050[1]. This unprecedented urban growth positions cities at the nexus of two critical challenges: they will bear the brunt of climate change impacts whilst simultaneously serving as crucibles for innovative sustainability solutions.
Urban centres, with their concentrated populations and complex infrastructures, are uniquely vulnerable to climate-related risks such as rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and heat island effects. Paradoxically, these same characteristics make cities potential powerhouses for driving the transition to a sustainable future. As such, urban planning and policy decisions made in the coming decades will play a pivotal role in shaping our global response to climate change.
Beyond the physical risks of climate change, cities will need to be resilient to wider impacts, such as mass migration from affected areas, food supply chain disruption, and loss of economic productivity. The costs of action are high — city budgets are often dwarfed by the upfront costs of ambitious climate action — yet the cost of inaction will undoubtedly be much greater, with the cost of unmitigated global warming projected to be between 3% and 30% of global GDP by 2050.
Although larger cities, especially those more obviously at risk from climate change, can afford to invest in climate resilience features, most small and medium-sized cities lack the resources and capacities to single-handedly transform their infrastructure and institutions at the speed and scale required. Furthermore, these significant changes require large-scale support from a wide range of stakeholders, from local communities to businesses and research institutions. And they require far more systematic and widespread partnerships.
Given the competing financial and logistical priorities of local authorities, a systematic approach to partnering is crucial. By collaborating with national governments, international organisations, private sector entities, research institutions, local businesses, and community groups, cities can access essential resources such as the finance, technologies, expertise, and support needed to develop and implement successful long-term climate strategies.
The importance of community dialogue
To forge climate strategies that truly resonate with their residents, cities must embrace a radically inclusive and participatory approach. By actively involving citizens, local businesses, civil society organisations, and other key stakeholders from the very outset, municipalities can co-create climate action plans that directly address the most pressing needs, concerns, and aspirations of their communities.
Establishing spaces for dialogue, such as sustainability hubs and stakeholder forums, enables officials to listen to people’s experiences, ideas, and priorities, foster mutual understanding, and collectively explore locally tailored solutions. Critically, to secure lasting public support and defuse potential resistance, these strategies must be explicitly designed to tackle entrenched social inequities and vulnerabilities alongside ambitious mitigation and adaptation goals.
By focusing on tangible projects that deliver visible benefits to people’s daily lives, from energy-efficient social housing and upgraded community spaces to cleaner air and expanded green jobs, local governments can nurture a positive, hopeful narrative around climate action that inspires all residents to become active partners in shaping their city’s sustainable future.
The key role of local business
Since businesses are also key emissions sources, city solutions platforms are an ideal place to motivate local companies to invest in innovation and change their practices by offering public recognition, certifications, and branding as “climate pioneers”.
Besides emissions reduction, local businesses can align with climate adaptation plans by attracting sources of investment in green jobs and strengthening relations within and across industries. Jointly exploring solutions with the private sector, such as opportunities for industrial symbiosis and the circular economy, can uncover locally relevant projects that deliver emission reductions and socio-economic benefits.
For government to effectively engage business, they need to demonstrate their credibility as long-term partners, despite the terms of mayoral elections. By presenting stable policy and regulatory environments, cities become more attractive for local businesses to collaborate in identifying and providing climate solutions.
Improving cities’ partnership capacities
Despite the clear imperative for cities to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders to achieve their climate goals, many municipal governments currently lack the dedicated staff, skills, institutional engagement structures and policies to effectively initiate and manage these vital partnerships.
To overcome this critical capacity gap, cities must fundamentally rethink how they approach partnerships. They need policies and engagement mechanisms to co-develop city climate partnership action plans with stakeholders, and support or empower the development of a whole suite of multi-stakeholder collaborations.
Cities will also need to embed a culture of collaboration across every level of government. This requires systematically equipping staff in all departments that shape the city’s carbon footprint and climate resilience – from energy, transport, and building to public health, education, and waste management – with the skills, tools, and mindset to proactively identify, engage, and negotiate with relevant stakeholders.
By training and empowering the officials directly responsible for developing and implementing sector-specific strategies to cultivate partnerships from the ground up, cities can weave a much more robust and resilient web of relationships with local businesses, community groups, research institutions, and other actors whose resources, expertise, and buy-in are essential for transformative climate action.
In summary, city climate strategies that have the greatest potential for achieving impactful, durable transformation at the pace and scale required are:
1) Co-created with citizens, businesses and other stakeholders through iterative participatory processes,
2) Responsive to social, economic, and environmental priorities in the local context, and
3) Delivered with significant contributions from long-term partnerships with key actors across society.
Strong multi-stakeholder partnerships, ingrained in how local governments operate, are essential for empowering cities to lead in building a climate-safe future.
Footnotes
1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision (ST/ESA/SER.A/420). New York: United Nations, p. 11
