The Critical Role of Nature-based Solutions for Enhancing Climate Resilience in Informal Areas
The world’s present and future are urban. As of 2023, more than half of the world’s population is residing in cities. This number is projected to grow significantly by 2050, marking a critical phase characterized by innovation trends and a substantial shift towards urban migration. We are confronted with the urgent task of addressing these challenges while also managing the climate crisis. This urban transition increases the demands on resources, simultaneously contributing to the degradation of biodiversity and heightened vulnerability to climate change.
Unfortunately, it is the most vulnerable, who contribute the least to the climate crisis, face the harshest consequences. As highlighted in the IPCC Working Group II report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability in 2022, 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in climate change vulnerability hotspots, and over 618 million people reside in low-lying coastal zones. These regions are particularly susceptible to climate-related impacts, including sea-level rise, land deviation, coastal erosion, and saltwater intrusion.
It is also alarming to note that over 10 per cent of the world’s physical assets and population are concentrated in urban centers situated less than 10 meters above sea level. These statistics emphasize
the critical importance of integrating resilience and adaptation planning elements into discussions
concerning National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
A significant concern for UN-Habitat is the current state of approximately one billion informal dwellers worldwide. Whilst urban growth has continued to expand at a rate of around 1.6 per cent, annual global informal settlements growth is at 9.85 per cent, making informal settlements the most common form of urbanization. These informal areas, often characterized by inadequate housing and living conditions, are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, further exacerbating the inequalities faced by their inhabitants.
UN-Habitat believes that nature-based solutions fostering resilience for the most vulnerable communities can affordably and efficiently improve their adaptive capacity to climate impacts. Nature-based solutions can reduce heat island effects, improve flood retention, and stabilize erosion prone land, while they stimulate socio-economic security, and in particular food security. This brings the triple dividend of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting ecological assets and biodiversity, and effectively adapting the most vulnerable communities to climate change. All these are outcomes of UN
Habitat’s Strategic Plan 2020 – 2025 with the objective of strengthening climate action and improving urban environment.
As significant challenges persist, this publication seeks to strengthen the links between urban adaptation, informal areas, and nature-based solutions. In particular, it is intended as an urban supplementary technical guideline to the UNFCCC on National Adaptation Plans. I would like to encourage policymakers, practitioners, and researchers alike to use this tool to mainstream the implementation of nature-based solutions in informal urban and local areas within the different elements of the National Adaptation Plan processes and adaptation planning in general. At the same time, I hope this publication connects national and urban actors striving to build a more resilient and sustainable world for all.
By focusing on adapting the most vulnerable communities to the impacts of climate change, together, we can create a better urban future, leaving no one and no place behind.
