By Bisola Adeyemo
Climate change has caused many disasters such as floods, droughts, sea-level rise, heatwaves, landslides, and storms. across the world especially in African countries.
United Nations stated that about 130 port cities with over one million inhabitants are expected to be affected by coastal flooding and the one billion people in urban informal settlements are, particularly at risk.
“Creating more sustainable, climate-resilient societies involves addressing a range of issues including poverty reduction, ensuring basic services livelihoods, the provision of accessible, affordable and adequate housing, investing in infrastructure, upgrading informal settlements and managing ecosystems. Successful, well-governed cities greatly reduce climate-related risks for their populations.
The way forward includes a range of options (stabilize GHG emissions, reduce emissions by 2/3 by 2050, improve energy conservation and efficiency, introduce new regulations transportation and building codes, raise price of fossil fuels and establish a carbon tax.
World cities day is celebrated every 31st of October annually. It is a day expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities addressing challenges of urbanization, and contribute to sustainable urban development around the world.
The theme for World Cities Day 2021 is Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience reflecting the fact that climate change will have a huge impact on city residents, with hundreds of millions of people experiencing floods, rising sea levels, storms and increasing periods of extreme temperatures.