Disrupting the imaginaries of urban action to deliver just adaptation

Vanesa Castán Broto; Marta Olazabal; Gina Ziervogel

doi:10.5334/bc.456

Figures & Tables

Adaptation policy cycle.
*Source:* United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (n.d.).

Table 1

Proposed targets used to assess and evaluate the stage in the Adaptation Policy Cycle Stage at the 8th Workshop of the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).

ADAPTATION POLICY CYCLE STAGE	KEY DEBATES AND PROPOSED TARGETS
Assessment of impacts, risks and vulnerability	Early warning systems, climate information services and data, and risk assessments with the goal of reducing exposure by a certain timeframe Methodological challenges of measuring climate impacts and exposure, especially in the short term and without clear baselines
Planning	Planning-related targets may include the formulation of national adaptation plans and planning instruments Other indicators may focus on planning capacity, climate information systems or the process of mainstreaming adaptation in other policy domains Clear linkage with the means of implementation Attention to inclusiveness in the targets, e.g. through strategies for including disaggregated data, child-responsive planning, and ensuring communities’ and Indigenous Peoples’ consent
Implementation	The number of implemented plans or projects for adaptation within a certain timeframe (e.g. 2030) is a necessary but not sufficient indicator Linkages to forms of action and enabling factors or means of implementation The limitations of simply counting the number of projects are recognised, and there is an emphasis on outcome-oriented targets such as qualitative indicators
Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)	Agreement on the need for national-level frameworks for MEL MEL frameworks should provide clear feedback on the other steps of the adaptation cycle
Enabling conditions	At the workshop, participants did not reach an agreement on their inclusion, pointing to important divergences in current discourses, though there was a common statement that they should focus on capacity, technology and finance

[i] Source: Summarised from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2023b).

Table 2

Articles in this special issue, ‘Urban Adaptation: Disrupting Imaginaries & Practices’, Buildings & Cities (2024), 5(1), guest editors Vanesa Castán Broto, Marta Olazabal and Gina Ziervogel.

AUTHORS	TITLE	DOI
V. Castán Broto, L. Westman & P. Huang	How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.390
L. Cerrada Morato	Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.381
T. Comelli, M. Pelling, M. Hope, J. Ensor, M. Evangelina Filippi, E. Yahya Menteşe & J. McCloskey	Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.385
L. Mabon, M. Sato & N. Mabon	Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.395
T. Okamoto & A. Doyon	Equity and justice in urban coastal adaptation planning: new evaluation framework	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.377
K. Rochell, H. Bulkeley & H. Runhaar	Nature for resilience reconfigured: global-to-local translation of frames in Africa	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.379
J. Schubert	Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.378
J. Teebken	Disrupt and unlock? The role of actors in urban adaptation path-breaking	https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.383

Disrupting the imaginaries of urban action to deliver just adaptation

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Table 1

Table 2

Paradigm

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