A recently published, open access book, Climate Risk in Africa, unpacks the challenges of decision-making and the complexities of climate adaptation across the continent at a moment of rapid urban growth for many African cities. The book includes chapters by several members of the FRACTAL research team alongside other researchers in the broader Future Climate for Africa research group. Last week, a summary of the new book by its editors, Professor Declan Conway and Dr Katharine Vincent, appeared in Carbon Brief.
The editors highlighted the learning lab and city dialogue consultation processes that have been central to FRACTAL’s work and that are designed to promote effective engagement about climate risks in nine southern African cities. Using Lusaka’s experience of strategic planning in the city as a case study, Conway and Vincent discussed FRACTAL’s process and the development of climate risk narratives for the city. The team worked with the City Council on their ongoing process of considering climate risk in Lusaka’s strategic plan (2017-2021) and also its Integrated Development Plan.
Throughout their engagements in cities across the southern African region, FRACTAL researchers have worked to ensure different stakeholders’ perspectives are always part of their learning, so that their conversations include technical approaches to a city’s development challenges, climate science, governance issues, and local knowledge about the lived experiences of adapting to the pressures of climate change and variability. This transdisciplinary approach is a key part of FRACTAL’s work to bridge the usability gap between the climate science and decision-makers’ desire for information that can help them to plan ahead.
Climate Risk in Africa is available for download here. It can be downloaded in its entirety or as individual chapters.
