More than 80% of the more than 1,100 cities that disclose data on their climate performance through the Carbon Disclosure Project predict “significant” impacts from floods, heat waves and fires. More than one in two cities (56 per cent) are already facing these dangers. The investment gap to put infrastructure works in place that improve the resilience of urban spaces is worth just $21 billion
CDP’s 2023 data on climate crisis adaptation in more than 1,100 cities around the world
Enough $21 billion to make the infrastructure of more than 700 global cities “climate-proof”. They are increasingly exposed to extreme weather events such as heat waves, high-temperature fires and floods. This data emerges from the analysis of climate crisis adaptation of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the independent initiative for ESG reporting of companies, states and cities.
These $21 billion represent the volume of investments still missing to put 727 infrastructure projects specifically designed for adapting to the climate crisis and improving urban resilience, and in the CDP database in 2023. Projects totaling $47 billion. “This highlights the fundamental link between the disclosure of climate data and the financing of critical projects to address climate risks,” CDP emphasizes.
Adaptation to the climate crisis, the risks to global cities
The data are extracted from the CDP-ICLEI Track platform, which covered 1,131 cities worldwide last year. They also reveal a complex picture of climate risk exposure for global urban centres.
More than four-fifths (83%) of cities said they faced “significant” climate risks, an increase of 3 percentage points from 2022. Risks that are not potential. More than half of these cities (56 per cent) report that they are already significantly affected by these dangers. And more than two-thirds are expected to become more intense and frequent in the future, in line with the forecasts of the most up-to-date climate science.
What are the climate risks for which adaptation measures are envisaged? Floods affect 58 global cities out of 100, but in Europe, the figure rises to 80%. A short distance away follows the extreme heat generated by heat waves (cited by 54% of global cities but by 83% of European cities). Then there is drought (38%), heavy rainfall (35%), and fire risk (22%).
