Climate change, equity and sustainable development goals : an urban perspective

Climate change is acknowledged as the largest threat to our societies in the coming decades, affecting large and diverse groups of residents in urban areas in this century of urbanization. The focus of climate change impact discussions conceivably shifts to who in cities will be affected how by climate change, bringing the urban equity question to the forefront and co-aligning with a set of key Sustainable Development Goals. Here we assess how climate change events may amplify urban inequity. We find that heat waves, but also flooding, landslides, and even mitigation and adaptation measures affect specific population groups more than others. As underlying sensitivity factors we consistently identify ocioeconomic status and gender. We synthesize the findings with regard to equity types, meaning outcome, procedural and context-related equity, and suggest solutions for avoiding increased equity and justice concerns as a result of climate change impacts, adaptation and itigation