The health benefits of tackling climate change, such as cleaner air and more access to green spaces, were key drivers in city officials’ decisions to continue with climate plans despite funding shortfalls caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

Overall, the study showed that enduring climate action during the pandemic was more common in cities in the Global South than in Europe or North America, despite greater funding challenges. Officials in Global South cities were also more likely to employ successful practices, such as partnering with other cities to strengthen climate action plans, or with businesses to strengthen sustainability initiatives.

First author of the study Dr Tanya O’Garra, from the Centre from Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, and Middlesex University, said: “Nearly 60 per cent of people live in cities worldwide, which can be economically beneficial for them, but city-dwellers are increasingly vulnerable to multiple crises caused by pandemics, conflict, and climate change itself.

“City leaders often pave the way with ambitious climate action until calls to tackle these other threats can draw funds away from their climate goals. Because these major challenges are so intertwined, this leaves their populations more vulnerable to all risks.”

Concluded Dr O’Garra: “If we find out how city officials can maintain action in the face of such challenges, we can help large populations, especially the poorest and most vulnerable to these interconnected risks, avoid the most serious consequences of climate change.”

The research, conducted by researchers in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and the UK, is published in the journal Nature Cities.

Driving climate action

The team analysed survey data from 2021, provided by city officials on the Carbon Disclosure Platform (CDP), as well as other sources, to assess how 793 cities responded to the Covid-19 crisis in respect of climate actions, funding and green recovery efforts.

In the short term, the majority of urban decision-makers kept up their climate commitments, but green recovery plans were set up in only 43 per cent of cities, suggesting the remainder of the cities are holding off from investing in longer-term climate plans.

Many previous studies of local city-based climate plans have focused on North America and Europe, but in this study, 48 per cent of the cities assessed were in the Global South. The results show that, in general, decision-makers for Global South cities have higher ambition in climate action and promoted more green recovery efforts despite facing greater funding shortfalls than cities in Europe and North America.

The team identified two broad reasons underlying city officials’ commitments to climate action. The first is exposure to environmental stress: in cities where citizens experience more climate-related issues – for example, climate hazards such as floods or droughts, or persistent issues like air pollution – officials are keener to pursue sustained climate adaptation and mitigation policies.

The second factor was early engagement with climate and sustainability: the more that city officials had already engaged in addressing climate and sustainability issues – for example, by joining climate networks, or by aligning economic development with sustainability – the more likely these issues had become embedded in city policies, processes and interactions, making them more likely to continue even under a crisis scenario.

The research team are now conducting in-depth interviews with city planning and administration officials in a select number of the cities.

Preliminary interviews with officials in Kochi, India, confirmed the credit for their resilience was due to many of the factors the team had identified in the data. Interviewees identified the benefits of existing co-ordination between state and local bodies, and engagement with different stakeholders in planning, including academics, entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and the public. They noted that the pandemic also led to an increased focus on climate action in the city, which has also occurred following other natural disasters.