Improving Climate Change Resilience in Global South Cities Through South-South Climate Finance

Abstract

Climate change is likely to exacerbate inequality and poverty in Global South cities despite the presence of international agreements and conventions to enhance sustainable development such as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, replicating Global North development models in the Global South might not be sufficient to address the climate change and development aspirations in the context of Asia; hence, Global North innovation capabilities might not be sufficient to address Global South climate change challenges. This paper provides an inductive analysis of the innovations and policies that could facilitate improved climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of developing Asian cities. The paper concludes that innovative climate change policies should utilise emerging climate finance mechanisms such as South-South climate finance modalities to promote community science/citizen science and social innovation rather than building hard infrastructure as this could improve the governance and distribution of resources in cities.