Building a Climate-Resilient City: Economics and finance

This policy brief outlines economic and financial strategies for cities to enhance their resilience to climate change, emphasizing the reduction of financial risks and the use of specialized accounting and valuation methods to prioritize adaptation investments.

• Climate change creates significant financial burdens for municipalities through infrastructure damage, productivity losses, and negative health impacts. Conversely, investing in climate resilience can lower liability costs, reduce risk exposure, and enhance credit ratings and investor confidence.
• Cities can utilize multiple-bottom-line accounting to integrate climate risk awareness and cost-effective adaptation benefits, and employ ecosystem services valuation to prioritize natural and green infrastructure solutions.
• The broader 'Building a Climate-Resilient City' series, developed for Edmonton and Calgary, recommends municipal adaptation planning based on three principles: robustness (strong design), redundancy (fail-safe networks via extra capacity), and resourcefulness (citizen empowerment).

APA

McCullough,, S. (2017). Building a Climate-Resilient City: Economics and finance. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-economics-and-finance

Chicago

McCullough,, Steve. Building a Climate-Resilient City: Economics and finance. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2017. https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-economics-and-finance.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=McCullough, |first1=Steve |title=Building a Climate-Resilient City: Economics and finance |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=24 April 2017 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-economics-and-finance |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mccullough2017building, author = {McCullough,, Steve}, title = {{Building a Climate-Resilient City: Economics and finance}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2017}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/brief/building-climate-resilient-city-economics-and-finance}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }