PROSPECTS OF TWINNING CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES THROUGH TRANSFORMATIVE ADAPTATION: LESSONS FOR AFRICAN CITIES

Abstract

In most African cities, existing approaches to tackle climate change and sustainability issues have remained largely weak, piecemeal and fragmented. For example, current adaptation practices are mainly focusing on ‘adapting to’ climatic disturbances instead of ‘adapting with’ the vulnerable urban population. This approach views climate change as the main source of vulnerability and focuses on protecting systems from weather and climatic events. It grossly ignores the social roots of vulnerability and misses out on opportunities such as those that emerge when climatic risks are jointly treated with environmental sustainability concerns. To evade this problem, this paper proposes a shift towards transformative adaptation, an approach that comprehensively attend to the entire urban socio-ecological system. The aim is to contribute to the discourse of inclusive cities by examining the prospects of simultaneously addressing climate change alongside other urban development challenges. Drawing on growing literature and reports on climate change adaptation in cities, I argue that the adjustment approach does not comprehensively address the underlying urban vulnerabilities and fail to match the severity of climate change impacts being experienced. On the contrary, a transformative approach locates urban risk beyond the biophysical environment to the entire urban social-ecological system. Thus, this approach is capable of jointly dealing with climate change and other urban development challenges as it holistically deals with the underlying vulnerability risks in urban settlements while addressing the root causes of urban unsustainability. African cities can draw useful lessons from the benefits that come with a transformative adaptation trajectory.