The Maputo Climate Change Assessment is based on the proposed Framework for Urban Climate Risk Assessment developed by the Fifth Urban Research Symposium. The climate risk assessment framework focuses on how cities are affected by climate change as opposed to how they contribute to climate change, and thus adaptation rather than mitigation is highlighted.

The framework analyses climate risk from three interconnected vectors – hazards, vulnerability and adaptive capacities. The Maputo summary is based on the report titled “Climate Change Impacts in Urban Areas of Mozambique, A Pilot Initiative in Maputo City: Preliminary Assessment and Proposed Implementation Strategy”, an initial output of the city’s activities under the Cities and Climate Change Initiative.

The Sorsogon Climate Change Assessment examines the climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation capacity of a small coastal city in the Philippines - Sorsogon City in the Bicol Region. The assessment uses a participatory Vulnerability and Adaptation process that looks into the city’s exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity vis-a-vis projected climate scenarios, previous climate related disaster events and people’s account of the past events and observations.

The summary is based on the report titled “Sorsogon City Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment”, an initial output of the city’s activities under the Cities and Climate Change Initiative.

UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative promotes enhanced climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing country cities. Kampala is a pilot city of the Initiative, and this document is an initial output of the Kampala’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative activities. This summary on climate change assessment for Kampala is based on the report titled “Assessment of Cities and Climate Change in Kampala and Uganda”, an initial output of the city’s activities under the Cities and Climate Change Initiative.

The Kampala City Assessment examines the climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation capacity of Kampala City in Uganda. The assessment examines urban development dynamics and urban vulnerabilities to climate change. Through documentary review and field interviews, institutional issues are analyzed to identify functional mechanisms, gaps and potentials, and to elicit information on how the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development as well as Kampala City Council are structured to respond to climate change.

The report concludes by summarizing the challenges the city faces in adapting to and mitigating against climate change and recommends action to enhance the adaptation capacity of the city.

This report is based on the Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador and the city of Esmeraldas: An Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities, 2009, prepared within the framework of UN-HABITAT ’s Cities in Climate Change Initiative.

The world continues to urbanize at an unprecedented pace and this year, for the first time ever, over half of the world’s population will be living in cities. While cities consume a major share of the planet’s resources and have often been the locus of the planet’s most serious environmental problems, they also symbolize a hope for a sustainable future.

Indeed, environmental sustainability in this urban millennium can only be achieved through cities’ leadership. Moreover, this challenge cannot be addressed by cities working in isolation. Partnerships between and among local governments, utilities, universities, businesses, non-governmental, community-based, or international organizations are therefore an essential mechanism for turning the abstract idea of collaboration into concrete joint activities.