Abstract
Cities—especially those with substantial poor populations—will face increasingly severe challenges in tackling the impacts of global environmental change (GEC). As economic dynamos and increasingly important population concentrations, cities both contribute substantially, and often are very vulnerable, to the impacts of GEC. This applies strongly in Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions. The inability of even a relatively wealthy and well-protected city such as New Orleans in the USA to withstand Hurricane Katrina has helped focus attention on the vulnerability of cities that are less protected. Coastal cities and towns from Dakar (which is used as a case study) via Lagos, Cape Town, Maputo and Mombasa to Djibouti contain many low-lying areas, often accommodating concentrations of poor residents, strategic infrastructure and economic production. However, different combinations of challenges will affect many inland urban centres. Tackling GEC successfully will require more than enhanced disaster preparedness. Action to address unsustainable aspects of everyday life and current corporate and institutional activity will be necessary. There can be no simple or universal strategy to reduce urban footprints. Local conditions (biophysical, structural, socio-economic and cultural) produce specific constraints and opportunities in each context.
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Notes
Commonwealth Foundation Briefing Meeting on Cities and Climate Change, London, 23 April 2008
See also http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=629.
President Mugabe withdrew Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth in 2003, but the new government is likely to seek readmission soon.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to UN-WIDER for sponsorship of the workshop, and to the organisers/editors for the invitation to participate. Jenny Kynaston prepared the figures.
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Simon, D. The Challenges of Global Environmental Change for Urban Africa. Urban Forum 21, 235–248 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-010-9093-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-010-9093-6