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COP26 Policy Brief:
How do we make COP26 deliver for adaptation in fragile urban environments?
Investigating how non-conflict violence risks and climate change risks overlap in cities, and what
this means for adaptation
KEY POLICY RECOMMENDATION:
Embed adaptation in climate change safely and
effectively in local contexts to ensure violence is
not triggered, exacerbated, or cascaded in fragile
areas.
Background
Among the world’s most vulnerable contexts to climate
change are low-income urban areas, often informally
settled. ‘Fragile’ urban areas have been so termed to
describe contexts where states are unwilling or unable to
provide basic infrastructure and services. This includes
those necessary to reduce risks and build capacities to
adapt. While fragility does not always connote violence, in
such areas people also live with the direct effects of many
forms of non-conflict violence (such as crime, evictions and
gender-based violence). Fragility is rising across cities,
while non-conflict violence is increasingly urbanised. Yet
very little research has explored through grounded,
empirical enquiry how the impacts of climate change and of
urban violence inter-relate as risks for people, and how to
deliver adaptation in these contexts.
Research at Nottingham
At the University of Nottingham, GCRF-funded research
project – ’Addressing the 24-hour cycle of urban risk’ – has
been investigating how non-conflict violence risks and
climate change risks overlap and compound vulnerability.
We have been working in low-income communities in
Nairobi (Kenya), Karachi (Pakistan) and Colombo (Sri
Lanka) that are sited in vulnerable ecological zones (such
as along riverbanks and drainage canals) affected by risks
of flooding, and where residents experience multiple forms
of violence in the context of little support from government
or outside agencies.
The interaction effects between governance, violence and
climate-related risks have emerged from both our
qualitative and quantitative survey-based work and are
particularly marked for women. Our research indicated
increases in gender-based violence triggered
or exacerbated by flood events. Heightened tensions in
communities followed the inadequate distribution of flood
relief. Violence cascades were seen, with women taking on
vulnerable employment and living conditions following
insecurity from living in partial housing structures.
Implications for Climate Change
Inter-sectional social identities are important to the ways in
which violence and climate risk interact, and climate impact
influences the forms of violence that may manifest. This kind
of nuanced data will be needed to embed adaptation safely
and effectively in local contexts. There is a need for ‘do no
harm’ principles for adaptation investments to ensure violence
is not triggered, exacerbated or cascaded. It is also crucial
to acknowledge the pro-active role of community networks
and organisations in otherwise fragile areas, and the need to
support their activities. Responsible bodies must invest in
multi-purpose infrastructures to tackle the need for
sustainable and safe cities. It is imperative to integrate
adaptation investment at the local level with development-
oriented investments that tackle the wider sets of inequalities
and insecurities that create vulnerability in fragile urban
contexts, such as in water and sanitation and housing
infrastructures.
Further Reading
Read about the 24-hour cycle of urban risk project
Read the COP26 blog
Contact the Researcher
Dr Arabella Fraser
Dr Arabella Fraser is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of
Social Sciences
Email: Arabella.Fraser@nottingham.ac.uk