The aspiration to deliver climate change action within a broader agenda of transformative change, introduced in the SREX report, received renewed attention after the publication of IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC, which argues for a focus on urban transformations and highlighted that informal settlements were vital for understanding the delivery of these transformations. Deep decarbonisation has emerged as a new idea that regards the development of low or zero carbon pathways as a condition for good adaptation in the long term. Decarbonisation becomes urgent in the face of growing impacts attributable to climate change . Urbanisation opens opportunities for deep mitigation in low-impact developments, and hence, it is imperative to understand the implications of those opportunities for climate action . These gains are not limited to urban areas. The reliance on connected urban- rural systems for water, food and fuel has led to city government and urban-based businesses supporting landscape adaptations in rural hinterlands with strong potential for mitigation and rural development co-benefits. Water Funds bring downstream urban public and private finance to support upstream rural residents to make land use and agricultural management decisions to avoid damaging runoff, soil erosion and downstream sedimentation with reduction in water quality and increased flood risk. There are more than 30 Water Funds in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. These operate at landscape scale; the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund, Kenya , planned for a USD 10 million investment in Water Fund-led conservation interventions, with a projected return of USD 21.5 million in economic benefits over a 30-year timeframe . However, these investments do not occur where communities lack funding or the institutions to direct funding from downstream beneficiaries to upstream residents .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report