Climate Risk Where Data Is Missing. Housing, Informality, & Climate Resilience

This Urban Library session launches the Climate Panorama of Invisibilized Settlements in Brazil, a state-of-the-art knowledge product that combines primary data, spatial analysis, and community-led research to understand how informal settlements experience and respond to the climate crisis. The session will begin with a presentation by Camila Jordan, Director of Institutional Relations and Advocacy at TETO Brasil, introducing the Climate Panorama’s methodology and key findings. Based on data collected across 119 favelas and invisibilized communities, the Panorama documents exposure to climate risks such as heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts, and landslides, while also mapping existing adaptive practices, social organization, and locally driven solutions. Rather than framing communities only through deficits, the Climate Panorama positions them as producers of knowledge and active agents of climate adaptation. The publication highlights concrete, tested solutions already implemented with communities, including resilient and incremental housing, adaptive infrastructure works, and community centers that function as hubs for organization, learning, and emergency response. These experiences are translated into practical recommendations for housing policy, climate adaptation planning, risk reduction, and public investment. Following the presentation, Camila Jordan will moderate a high-level discussion with Gabriela Arrastua, Chief Innovation Officer, and Nigar Arpadarai (TBC), Member of Parliament of Azerbaijan and UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29. The dialogue will explore how community-generated data and locally rooted solutions can inform climate policy, urban resilience strategies, and international climate agendas, connecting grassroots innovation with national and global decision-making. The session will conclude with an interactive exchange with participants, focusing on how the Climate Panorama’s approach and findings can be adapted, replicated, and integrated into urban and climate policy processes in different regional contexts.