The Climate-Housing Nexus, Local Governance for a Just and Inclusive Transition.

The climate transition is an imperative to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown, yet its social outcomes remain far from guaranteed. If left strictly to market forces, green investments and infrastructure developments run the risk of driving displacement and deepening existing urban inequalities. This session at WUF13 argues that the transition to a net-zero future must be led by cities in close collaboration with national governments and designed to reinforce a more equitable urban future. Through the support of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the leadership of Bogotá, Tshwane, and Quezon City, this event demonstrates how local governments serve as essential anchors ensuring that the green transition is inclusive rather than exclusionary. While climate mitigation efforts are environmentally necessary, they can act as a double-edged sword. When a neighborhood becomes "greener" and more resilient, its market value tends to rise, frequently pricing out the low-income residents these projects were intended to serve. Mayors and local governments are uniquely positioned as entities capable of implementing initiatives to ensure climate actions and its improvements strengthen frontline communities and avoid the involuntary green gentrification. The UK-funded Urban Climate Action Programme (UCAP) Climate Action Implementation (CAI), a programme supporting 15 cities in the Global South to implement transformational climate actions, has successfully demonstrated how moving from high-level planning to site-specific action allows for inclusive measures that directly enhances the right to stay in one’s home, an essential right to the city. While global agreements set the targets, the actual success or failure of the climate-housing nexus is decided at the city level. For the transition to be truly fair, it must be mainstreamed into every urban planning decision, from urban planning, waste, transportation, energy and buildings to affordable housing. Local governments possess the unique capacity for locally driven action, allowing them to engage directly with residents to co-create solutions that reduce emissions without sacrificing inclusion in a just transition. Furthermore, Mayors coming together across the globe around joint initiatives such as the C40 Net Zero Carbon Buildings or the C40 and UN-Habitat Urban Planning Accelerator, can not only accelerate change in their constituencies, but also inspire other local leaders to follow suit.