Cities

Stakes are high for communities that have already started experiencing extreme rain, storm events, or wildfires. In the past three years, climate damage has cost the world $650 billion, two-thirds of which was covered by North America alone, and if trends continue, the damage could reach hundreds of billions of dollars just in the United States by 2090. But how well prepared are these communities for the age of adaptation? Frontline communities are acutely aware of the numerous ways climate change can impact local economies, jobs, and livelihoods, including in terms of business interruption, loss of income and economic activity, [...]

October 9, 2018 This weekend, Bloomberg published a stunning article on the imperiled state of Miami-Dade’s fresh water supply due to rising seas. This reportage threw into stark relief a welter of climate change-related threats to coastal communities and private real estate holdings, particularly on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Only clear-eyed management of physical climate risks can help mitigate the financial jeopardy facing homeowners, investors, and local governments. The case of Southeast Florida’s fresh water is particularly alarming because of the problem’s apparent intractability. Miami-Dade sits on the Biscayne Aquifer, which serves as a primary water source. [...]

By Andrew Eil & Stacy Swann This week, the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities (100 RC) program is convening nearly 500 urban resilience leaders from cities around the world, including 80 Chief Resilience Officers, in New York to discuss, share, and develop new resilience solutions for cities. In our last blog post, we discussed the concept of bankability: “Bankability” implies that lenders and investors believe the risk exposure of a project does not outweigh its return potential. Bankability as a concept is not only relevant to private developers in their quest to finance their projects, but also to cities trying [...]