This new report by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in collaboration with the Clingendael Institute and other Dutch research institutes points to pressure on security and migration arising from too little, too much or polluted water. Many integrated solutions are possible to divert this trend towards a sustainable and climate-resilient world.

While research on climate change and urban violence are independently strong, few efforts have been made to understand the linkages between them. To date, there is little research or analysis on whether, where and how climate change adaptation and urban violence intersect and interact.

Cities are on the sharp end of a range of risks from criminal violence, terrorism and war to demographic pressures, to climate and environmental change. Coastal megacities are especially at risk given the specific impacts of climate change they face, including accelerated global sea-level rise, increased storm frequency and severity, and destruction to critical infrastructure such as port facilities, rail and road linkages, and energy installations, all of which are amplified as urban populations become ever larger.

At the Habitat III conference in Quito, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) launched, ‘Addressing Climate Change in National Urban Policy,’ a guide developed to assist all national urban policy stakeholders to better understand the intersection between national urban policy and climate change. While urbanization has brought great benefits and opportunities, cities are a major contributor to climate change.