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This paper reflects on the progress made in climate change adaptation in the city of Durban since the launch of the Municipal Climate Protection Programme in 2004. This includes the initial difficulties in getting the attention of key sectors within municipal government, and how this was addressed and also served by the more detailed understanding of the range of adaptation options and their cost-benefits. There is also a better understanding of the potentials and constraints on community-based adaptation and the opposition from some landowners to measures to protect and enhance ecosystem services. The paper ends with lessons learnt that contradict some common assumptions – for instance, what approaches best build support for climate change adaptation within local governments, what measures work and from where lessons can be drawn. It also describes the perhaps unexpected linkages between local action and international influence and highlights the need for international climate change negotiations to recognize the key roles of urban governments in developing locally rooted adaptation and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the institutional and resource challenges and opportunities in getting different sectors in eThekwini Municipality (the local government responsible for planning and managing the city of Durban) to recognize and respond to their role in climate change adaptation. The Headline Climate Change Adaptation Strategy launched by the municipality in 2006 did not catalyze the development of sectoral plans or significantly influence the Integrated Development Plan, the key document through which the municipal government sets and implements development priorities. Possible causal factors for this include limited human and financial resources and more immediate and urgent development needs. To address the situation, the municipality’s Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department encouraged and supported three pilot sectors to develop their own municipal adaptation plans. This more sectoral approach encouraged greater interaction among the sectors and provided each with a clearer understanding of their needs and roles from an adaptation perspective. It also highlighted how climate change adaptation could be used as a tool to address development priorities. This work will be extended through research into the cost-benefits of Durban being an “early adapter”. Work has also begun on community-based adaptation (including support for reforestation projects that provide “green jobs”) and on responses to slow onset disasters, food security and water constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An increasing number of cities are recognising the impacts of climate change on their development pathways. In this paper, we assess strategic climate adaptation actions in the cities of Durban (South Africa), Indore (India), and Medellin (Colombia), and examine different approaches to integrating emerging adaptation priorities into urban plans, programmes, or governance arrangements. We highlight sources of planning tension – particularly between aspects of the planning process and larger urban political economic forces – that reshape how subsequent adaptation interventions are framed and implemented. We find that when advanced with a focus on alignment with development, strategic actions that transcend individual actor or sectoral interests have a better chance at taking root. However, we note that a procedural focus in strategic urbanism must also be accompanied by an integrated assessment of planning outcomes in order to ensure more equitable and inclusive development in cities. Although strategic approaches may facilitate coherent policy framings, targeted actor coalitions, and opportunities for collaborative action, such approaches are often unable to adequately capture the difficult policy trade-offs or contestations that are required to further overall adaptive capacities of cities. In other words, strategic adaptation actions must be considered in relation to the powerful, and often entrenched, political economic interests that constrain urban equity at-large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]