Retos urbanos: debates centrales para la sostenibilidad y la adaptación al cambio climático

Abstract

This article illustrates the connections between climate change impacts and socioeconomic development and, and from these considerations, the relationships that these impacts have on urban settlements are analyzed. In the second part, the issues of adaptation are discussed; in one hand, it emphasizes the relationship between Global Environmental Change (GEC) climate change and adaptation, while on the other stands out that there is an agenda of inequality and social justice within these dynamics. Finally, the third and final part of the article explores the dimensions of urban space, energy supply and access to water and sanitation, to show how climate change agendas are double featured, meaning how looking at the physical dimension with technical rationality fail to capture the complexity of subjects related to the problem of climate change. The article is proposed as a “concept paper”, which aims to show analytical connections still poorly developed within a research area of rapid construction, such as the cities adaptation to climate change.