Urban climate vulnerability and governance in the Russian North

Abstract

ABSTRACTTwo different kinds of locales that are commonly understood as sensitive to the effects on ongoing and potentially increasing climate change are the Arctic, as a world region, and cities, as the preferred dwelling place of over half of the planet's population. Understanding how climate change may affect Arctic cities would be of paramount importance, especially where population densities are high. In the Arctic, the Russian Federation contains the most Arctic territory, the most highly urbanized places and greatest number of urban residents across all of the Arctic. This paper provides an overview of climate change policy in Russia, generally, and an urban vulnerability framework developed specifically to elucidate the suite of biophysical, socioeconomic, political and cultural vulnerabilities related to climate change in Russian Arctic urban places. This paper suggests that domestic politics and policy do not currently address the current and impending vulnerabilities related to climate change for people in urban settings in the Russian North.