To protect city residents against the impact of climate change, elected officials must first prepare real adaptation plans and then mainstream this concern into all local public policies, writes Sabrina Archambault in an opinion piece on Devex.
To do so, a strong and ambitious political commitment is certainly necessary, but a panoply of institutional, strategic and social factors is also crucial to ensuring that adaptation is effective, continues the piece. Archambault outlines three key ways to achieve this; remove financial constraints, strengthen local partnerships; scale up political support, while reconciling adaptation and development; and establish pillars for sustainable urban adaptation.
Sabrina Archambault is the French agency for development (AFD)'s climate change adaptation officer.