By Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez and Joe Leitmann
By 2030, without efforts to boost urban resilience, climate change may push up to 77 million urban residents into poverty.
The good news is that the world has a brief window of opportunity to make cities more resilient to climate change, natural disasters, and other stresses, as almost 60% of the urban area that will be built by 2030 is yet to be developed.
Boosting urban resilience will require a significant amount of funding—especially for developing countries. Over the last five years, the World Bank has invested nearly $10 billion in over 70 urban resilience projects worldwide, and worked with global partners to help governments tap into much-needed private capital.
These are key findings of a new report titled “Investing in Urban Resilience: Making Cities and the Urban Poor More Resilient,” which was presented last week at the UN Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador.
In this video, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice speaks with Joe Leitmann, author of the report and Lead Disaster Risk Management Specialist of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) about the report, and why investing in urban resilience matters for cities, the urban poor, and the New Urban Agenda.