Introduction: Financing the Resilient City

Abstract

The finance challenge for building urban resilience and adapting to climate change is daunting, but the costs of doing nothing are even dimmer. As cities grow, they concentrate more people and assets, and with this, greater risk of economic loss. The costs of a single storm event on a city’s infrastructure and urban services can exceed US$ 1 billion. Of the estimated global adaptation costs of US$ 80–100 billion per year, 80% will need to be spent in urban areas alone (World Bank 2010). At the same time, international climate finance is failing to provide anywhere near such quantities.