Climate Readiness As a Driver of Urban Transformation: Lessons From the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Cycle 2023–2024

This paper analyzes five finalists from the 2023–2024 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities to explore how climate-readiness initiatives can serve as entry points for broader urban transformation and systemic change.

• Climate-readiness initiatives can address compounding urban pressures—such as inequality, affordability, and infrastructure strain—and generate benefits that extend beyond climate goals to include safety, mobility, ecology, public space, community cohesion, and governance.
• The analysis of the 2023–2024 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities finalists indicates that climate actions can drive longer-term systems change through scaling processes and seven types of enabling conditions, referred to as "infrastructures."
• The paper proposes six priority actions for cities to strengthen climate readiness and guide urban transformation based on the concept of infrastructures of climate readiness.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Climate Readiness As a Driver of Urban Transformation: Lessons From the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Cycle 2023–2024. https://www.wri.org/research/climate-readiness-driver-urban-transformation-lessons-wri-ross-center-prize-cities-cycle

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Climate Readiness As a Driver of Urban Transformation: Lessons From the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Cycle 2023–2024. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/climate-readiness-driver-urban-transformation-lessons-wri-ross-center-prize-cities-cycle.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Climate Readiness As a Driver of Urban Transformation: Lessons From the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Cycle 2023–2024 |url=https://www.wri.org/research/climate-readiness-driver-urban-transformation-lessons-wri-ross-center-prize-cities-cycle |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendclimate, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Climate Readiness As a Driver of Urban Transformation: Lessons From the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Cycle 2023–2024}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/climate-readiness-driver-urban-transformation-lessons-wri-ross-center-prize-cities-cycle}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }