How Can Cities Adapt to Climate Change?
Adapting to a warmer world could drive one of the largest infrastructure build-outs in history, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs\u2019 Global Markets Institute, titled Taking the heat: making cities resilient to climate change. The report acknowledges the importance of reducing carbon emissions but focuses on the need to adapt to ongoing changes in the climate. Cities, which are home to the majority of the world\u2019s population and generate most of its GDP, will need to develop climate resilience across all types of infrastructure, including coastal protection, transportation, energy and communications. They will need to take an \u201call-of-the-above\u201d approach to financing, according to Sandra Lawson, executive director of the Global Markets Institute, because \u201ceven the most prosperous cities are not going to be able to fund this alone.\u201d Amanda Hindlian, chief operating officer of Global Investment Research and president of the Global Markets Institute, recommends that cities \u201cstart now\u201d and allow for maximum flexibility, so that they can \u201cbenefit from input costs and economies of scale that that come from new technologies and that make these problems easier to address in economically feasible ways over time.\u201d