How does the construction of climate adaptive cities enhance climate resilience?

Abstract

Promoting policies that facilitate urban adaptation to climate extremes is of global concern. Globally, cities have attempted to adjust to climate change in various ways. Using data from a panel of Chinese cities that have engaged in preliminary climate adaptation, this empirical study is based on an analysis of the effectiveness, heterogeneity and mechanisms of urban climate adaptive policy, mainly using the difference-in-difference (DID) method. The findings show that the preliminary policy significantly improves urban climate adaptation and enhanced climate resilience through pathways such as enhanced technological innovation, increased public participation in environmental issues, appropriate penalties for damage to the environment and lenient environmental regulation. The study also provides multiple tests to confirm whether, and at what level, the experimental policy has indeed been effective. The results show that parallel trend tests, counterfactual tests and random experiments all indicate that the climate adaptive urban project has been effective and robust. Further evidence that there are notable differences in the policy’s effects across eastern, central, and western China comes from the heterogeneity test results. The interaction effect based on the economic growth level demonstrates that the impact of policy execution varies significantly with economic development level. The findings provide useful policy insights into ways to leverage the effects of policies in the face of extreme climate events and to enhance global resilience to extreme climate risks across the world.