Addressing today’s public health challenges requires learning from past successes while adapting to emerging threats. Here we focus on two pressing, interconnected issues: physical inactivity and climate change. We present the Physical Activity and Climate Change (PACC) model, a conceptual framework illustrating how well-designed physical activity initiatives can simultaneously contribute to climate mitigation, support adaptation, and promote health and equity. We provide insights on Indigenous knowledge and contemporary sport, re-imagined urban design, behavioural and equity synergies, and opportunities to develop co-benefit metrics, innovative governance models and cross-sector solutions. We emphasize the need for systems-based, co-designed approaches that prioritize environmental sustainability, health equity and cultural relevance while avoiding unintended consequences. Aligning physical activity and climate change agendas is more powerful than addressing them separately, offering greater combined benefits for population and environmental health. The PACC model offers a practical foundation for advancing integrated, equitable and sustainable solutions. A physical activity and climate change framework integrates climate mitigation, adaptation, health equity and Indigenous knowledge into public health campaigns for physical activity promotion.

While migration is often conceptualized as an adaptive response to climate hazards, migration can also present severe risks to people on the move. In this paper, we attempt to operationalize the Representative Key Risks (RKR) framework of the Sixth Assessment Report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for human mobility. First, we provide a framework for understanding how mobility risks emerge by engaging with the concept of habitability. We argue that uninhabitability occurs where the physical environment loses suitability and where there is a loss of agency in local populations. The severity of the risk from the loss of habitability is then represented by the high potential for human suffering. When climate hazards affect physical suitability and agency, the forms of migration that occur undermine human wellbeing and the right to self-determination: forced displacement, community relocation/resettlement, and involuntary immobility. Second, we show how such forms of mobility are more or less likely along different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). This paper asserts a central concern around human suffering to recentre scenario discourse on where, and how, adaptation, changes to development patterns, and government policies can reduce this suffering. Proactive governance at local, national, and international levels that attends to people’s adaptation and mobility needs can avert the more frequent emergence of severe risks related to mobility in a changing climate.

Floods have become recurrent events in Rwanda, causing diverse effects on rural households across the country. However, little is known about the effects of floods encountered by people and their coping strategies, which are crucial for reducing vulnerability. Gicumbi District is among the most exposed to climate hazards and is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The effects of floods on rural households in Gicumbi district and their coping strategies were examined. A mixed approach was adopted where quantitative data was collected to inform wider understanding of a population and qualitative ones to acquire deep contextual insights about individual’s lived experiences. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 399 heads of households stratified into six district sectors. The study employed descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis. Common effects of flooding experienced by the respondents included crop destruction, house damage, lack of sufficient food and safe drinking water. The coping strategies adopted by the respondents included saving money and food, support from friends and families, selling assets, borrowing money to restore losses, and migrating to other communities. In addition, flood victims received support from local authorities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), including financial support, temporary shelters, and life support materials. Adaptation strategies adopted by households included drainage channels, plantation of trees, radical terraces and sandbags. The results showed that lack of flood risk knowledge and access to early warnings, inadequate housing, living in high-risk areas, and dependence on a single source of income were the main factors influencing the severity of flood effects. Early warnings (p < 0.001) and flood risk awareness (p = 0.009) significantly elicited positive coping mechanisms. Governments and relevant stakeholders should develop effective strategies and establish programs enabling timely access to early warning systems and increasing disaster risk awareness to reduce vulnerability for improved livelihoods and community resilience.

Summary Motivation Communities across the global south use their rich indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) to predict weather events and climate hazards. ILK may assist efforts to address climate change challenges in Africa and make subsequent decisions regarding climate adaptation. Purpose The article documents evidence of the ILK's potential in reducing vulnerability to climate change and/or improving the resilience of communities. The study also reflects on major barriers that hinder the improved mainstreaming of ILK into adaptation strategies. Methods and approach The present study uses two main methods: a literature review and a presentation of case studies from a sample of African countries where ILK informs adaptation options, including indigenous land‐tenure practices and weather prediction. The selected case studies highlight the historical legacy of ILK and its effectiveness in reducing vulnerability and the impacts of climate change. Findings The results indicate that, despite being acknowledged as a valuable resource for climate adaptation, current national adaptation policies on the African continent still show serious gaps in effectively integrating ILK systems within the legal frameworks to reduce vulnerability. Policy implications ILK should be better integrated with modern climate change adaptation strategies to anticipate more effective responses. Both rural communities and relevant government agencies should complement the use of ILK with climate change strategies, so as to maximize its contribution to the effective implementation of climate change policies.

We argue that solutions-based research must avoid treating climate change as a merely technical problem, recognizing instead that it is symptomatic of the history of European and North American colonialism. It must therefore be addressed by decolonizing the research process and transforming relations between scientific expertise and the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and of local communities. Partnership across diverse knowledge systems can be a path to transformative change only if those systems are respected in their entirety, as indivisible cultural wholes of knowledge, practices, values, and worldviews. This argument grounds our specific recommendations for governance at the local, national, and international scales. As concrete mechanisms to guide collaboration across knowledge systems, we propose a set of instruments based on the principles of consent, intellectual and cultural autonomy, and justice. We recommend these instruments as tools to ensure that collaborations across knowledge systems embody just partnerships in support of a decolonial transformation of relations between human communities and between humanity and the more-than-human world.

Abstract The collection and use of data on climate change and its impacts are crucial for effective climate adaptation and climate risk management. The revolution in internet access, technology and costs has led to a shift from using traditional paper‐based data collection to the use of Mobile Data Collection using Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) such as smartphones and tablets. In this paper, we report our experiences using both approaches for a household and business survey during a climate adaptation study in two Nigerian cities—Makurdi and Calabar. The focus of this paper is to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of using traditional paper‐based data collection and PDAs as data collection tools for climate change study in African societies. In Calabar, data were collected using paper questionnaires, while in Makurdi the questionnaires were developed on Open Data Kit (ODK) and administered using PDAs. Results show that data collection using PDA was faster, cheaper, more accurate and resulted in fewer omissions than paper‐based data collection. There was a time saving of four (4) minutes per questionnaire and a 24% cost saving when using PDA. PDA provides additional benefits where platforms can collect images, videos and coordinates. This significantly improved the credibility of the data collection process and provided further data that allowed for the mapping of environmental phenomena by linking survey research with geo‐referenced data in a geographic information systems platform to provide spatial representations of social and environmental system convergence. PDA offers a tool for collecting data that will make necessary socio‐environmental data available in a faster, reliable and cheaper manner; future research can build on this study by discovering other possible but less highlighted benefits of PDA. Although, with great benefits, there are lessons to be learnt and issues to consider when deploying PDA in large‐scale household surveys.

The Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) initiative provides a distillation of the IPCC reports into accessible and targeted summaries that can help inform action at city and regional scales. This is a collection of the three volumes of the SUP series combined together.

The second volume in the Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) series, Climate Change in Cities and Urban Areas: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, offers a concise and accessible distillation of the IPCC Working Group II Report. Cities are places of high risks from climate change, resulting from the interaction of climate change hazards, the exposure of infrastructure, people and ecosystems, the vulnerability of exposed elements and communities, and the negative or unintended effects of responses to climate change to people and ecosystems. This report assesses the feasibility and effectiveness of different adaptation options but highlights that adaptation has limits and can even lead to maladaptation, triggering unintended effects which increase risk, emissions and lock-ins. It synthesises the latest evidence on the necessary urban-led transformation, as well as evidence on operationalizing the five simultaneous system transitions across land, coastal, ocean and freshwater ecosystems; cities, regions, and infrastructure; energy and industrial systems, accelerated by societal choices. Cities and urban areas have a critical role to play in the climate resilient development needed to meet goals of climate change, human wellbeing, and ecosystem health challenges.

Risk-sensitive urban development is required to reduce accumulated risk and to better consider risk when planning new developments. To deliver a sustainable city for all requires a more frank and comprehensive focus on procedure: on who makes decisions, under which frameworks, based upon what kind of data or knowledge, and with what degree and direction of accountability. Acting on these procedural questions is the promise of transformative urban development. This chapter explores the status of risk-sensitive and transformative urban development and the scope for transition towards these components of sustainability in urban sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of diverse city cases: Karonga (Malawi), Ibadan (Nigeria), Niamey (Niger) and Nairobi (Kenya). A common analytical framework is presented to help identify blockages and opportunities for transition towards a risk-sensitive and transformative urban development. This framework is then illustrated through each city in turn; a concluding discussion reflects on city observations to draw out recommendations for city-level and wider action and research partnerships.

Vulnerability study identifies the most vulnerable systems, regions, peoples, and the contributing factors to the vulnerability. Vulnerability study in climate change context is crucial to effectively and efficiently reduce the impacts of climate variability and change. This study assessed the vulnerability of peasant farmers to climate variability and change in semi-arid Ethiopia. The semi-arid zone was categorized into southern, central, and northern semi-arid. From each semi-arid zone, sample districts and sample peasant associations were selected respectively by manual lottery and purposive sampling techniques. 396 household surveys, 12 focus group discussions, and rainfall and temperature data were used for analysis. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used as the main analysis technique to construct the vulnerability indices. The central semi-arid zone with the vulnerability index of -3.07 was highly vulnerable at χ²(2) =43.9986, P ≤ 0.05, while the northern semi-arid zone with the vulnerability index of 4.83 was the least vulnerable. The lack of access to a clean drinking water source, main road, and market center were among the factors that contributed to farmers’ vulnerability to climate variability and change in central semi-arid Ethiopia. The lack of access to information, small farmland holding size, and lack of multipurpose trees on the farmland are among the factors that have to be addressed in northern semi-arid even if it is relatively the least vulnerable. The level of farmers’ vulnerability to climate variability and change and the contributing factors to farmers’ vulnerability varies in semi-arid Ethiopia. Vulnerability reduction measures need to be specific to each semi-arid zone and priority needs to be given according to their degree of vulnerability. Keywords: Peasant Farmers, Vulnerability, Climate Change, Semi-Arid Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-5-07 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Many cities in sub-Saharan Africa lack official records of deaths and of serious illnesses and injuries from everyday hazards and disaster events at all scales. This is a major limitation to effective planning for risk reduction. This paper seeks to fill some of these data gaps for the city of Ibadan, drawing on newspaper reports, hospital records, and databases or records of government departments for the period 2000–2015. It presents what can be learned about risks from these sources and discusses how the social, economic and political structures at the national, city and locality levels contribute to the most serious urban risks, as well as how these drive the process of risk accumulation, especially for vulnerable groups. Excluding public health risks for which data are scarce and incomplete, road traffic accidents, crime, violence and flooding constitute the most serious hazards in the city of Ibadan.

Provision of data and information for disaster risk reduction is increasingly important to enable resilience. However, the focus of provision in many African countries is limited to national scale risk assessment and meteorological data. The research aimed to consider the perspectives on availability and access to information of different local urban actors that require reliable and specific information to make informed decisions. The research used workshop discussions and questionnaires to collect views from stakeholders in flood risk management in Nigerian cities about their current access to information and requirements. The results confirmed that stakeholders and communities agree in recognising the importance of climate information. Findings identified issues surrounding communication between agencies, government and technical experts. The role of the media and business in filling the vacuum left by state provision of information was further highlighted, demonstrating the potential for Private Public Partnerships in supporting adaptation and response to flooding. However, significant differences in access between sub-groups were also revealed such that some marginalised groups may be excluded from information. It follows that climate services, data and information provision need to be collaboratively designed in order to be more inclusive, meet user requirements and build community capacity.

The increasing demand for cities in developing societies to embed climate adaptation into policies and practices has implications for the governance system which mainly focus on governing by traditional hierarchical forms, and by network while neglecting other forms of governing. This raises fundamental questions concerning how governing arrangements support or constrain climate hazard management. The paper assesses existing approaches to adapting to climate hazards in Calabar metropolis in Nigeria, where flooding is a major hazard. The governance systems adopted in the context of flood adaptation and their implication for practice is further investigated, and the strategies necessary for an improved implementation of climate hazard adaptation at the local governance level examined. Data for the study is collected from a stakeholder workshop and document analysis. Despite calls for decentralized governance and prevalence of a hierarchical system, other forms of governing coexist alongside these systems in Calabar. Five key strategies which should form the basis of urban climate hazard adaptation in practice, as identified by stakeholders, are synergy of activities among stakeholders; enforcement devoid of politics and bureaucracy, capacity building and information/data availability; increased focus on international cooperation and funding; and consideration of connections between flooding and other urban processes.

Climate change without adaptation is projected to impact strongly the livelihoods of the rural communities. Adaptation to climate change is crucial for developing country like Ethiopia due to high population and dependency on agriculture. Hence, this study was initiated to examine the barriers to and determinants of the choice of crop management strategies to combat climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) concepts of climate change adaptation provided the framework. Stratified and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select a sample of 398 households. The household survey was employed to collect data on current adaptation strategies. Logistic regression was used to analyse the determinants of choice of adaptation strategies. Logistic regression analyses were carried out at p≤0.05. Small farmland size, agro-ecology, farmland location, financial constraints, and lack of skills were the major barriers to adoption of crop management strategies. Age, farming experience, income, family size, government experts’ extension services, agro-ecology, and crop failure history of households were significantly related to the choice of most of the crop management strategies. Socio-economic and institutional factors determined rural communities' ability and willingness to choose effective adaptation strategies. Policy priority should be given based on agro-ecology and households demand of policy intervention such as providing extension services and subsidizing the least adopted strategies due to financial constraints.

Temperature and rainfall variability affect systems such as water, agriculture, health, tourism, coastal areas, and biodiversity. This study examined climatic variability, and trends in Dejen district, Nile Basin of Ethiopia. The trends in temperature and rainfall over the period 1979- 2014 were computed and tested for statistical significance. Results indicated a significant increase in temperature consistent with global temperature pattern. The decreasing trend in rainfall is contrary to the projections of a climate model for East Africa.The results show that the mean annual temperature increased by 1.66 OC. The maximum and minimum temperatures also rose by 2.16 OC and 1.91 OC respectively. The yearly rainfall declined by 399.96 millimeters. From 36 years of observation, 2002 and 2012 received below the average rainfall and characterized by arid years while 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014 years were moderately dry. The year 1983, 1986, 1987, 1996, 1998, and 2010 were moderately wet. Among these negative patterns, the year 2002 and 2012 were extreme drought years. In the Nile Basin of Ethiopia, the variability and trends of temperature and rainfall, which hinders agricultural production are increasing and expected to increase in the future. This implies that the country specifically the study area whose mainstay depends on agriculture must cope with further warming, low, and erratic rainfall, and frequent climatic extremes. Keywords: Climate change, drought frequency, standardized precipitation index, rainfall variations

Risk-sensitive urban development is required to reduce accumulated risk and to better consider risk when planning new developments. To deliver a sustainable city for all requires a more frank and comprehensive focus on procedure: On who makes decisions, under which frameworks, based upon what kind of data or knowledge, and with what degree and direction of accountability? Acting on these procedural questions is the promise of transformative urban development. This paper explores the status of risk sensitive and transformative urban development and the scope for transition towards these components of sustainability in urban sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of diverse city cases: Karonga (Malawi), Ibadan (Nigeria), Niamey (Niger) and Nairobi (Kenya). The paper draws from a 3-year research and capacity building programme called Urban Africa: Risk Knowledge that aims to address gaps in data, understandings and capacity to break cycles of risk accumulation. A common analytical framework is presented to help identify blockages and opportunities for transition towards a risk-sensitive and transformative urban development. This framework is then illustrated through each city in turn and a concluding discussion reflects on city observations to draw out recommendations for city level and wider action and research partnerships.

Many African towns and cities face a range of hazards, which can best be described as representing a "spectrum of risk" of events that can cause death, illness or injury, and impoverishment. Yet despite the growing numbers of people living in African urban centres, the extent and relative severity of these different risks is poorly understood. This paper provides a rationale for using a spectrum of methods to address this spectrum of risk, and demonstrates the utility of mixed-methods approaches in planning for resilience. It describes activities undertaken in a wide-ranging multi-country programme of research, which use multiple approaches to gather empirical data on risk, in order to build a stronger evidence base and provide a more solid base for planning and investment. It concludes that methods need to be chosen in regard to social, political economic, biophysical and hydrogeological context, while also recognising the different levels of complexity and institutional capacity in different urban centres. The paper concludes that as well as the importance of taking individual contexts into account, there are underlying methodological principles - based on multidisciplinary expertise and multi-faceted and collaborative research endeavours - that can inform a range of related approaches to understanding urban risk in sub-Saharan Africa and break the cycle of risk accumulation.

Communities’ perception of climate change must be integrated with research information to improve their adaptive capacity successfully. Thus, to propose appropriate adaptation options to the specific localities, understanding the levels of perception of rural communities to climate change and variability is crucial. This study aims to capture the rural communities’ perception of climate change and its determinants in Dejen district, Nile basin of Ethiopia. Cross-sectional socio-economic and time series climatic data were used. Stratified and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select a sample of 398 households. Chi-square analysis was carried out at p≤0.05. The majority (65.7%) of households had information about climate change before this study survey. Age, farming experience, income, the number of relatives, access to weather information, farmer to farmer access, and government experts’ extension services had a significant effect on the majority of climatic variables perception of households. The households’ perception of climate change was in line with results of climate data analysis. The chi-square analysis test of hypothesis shows gender has no significant effect on the perception of climate change. The implication is that all social groups in the study area perceived that there are changes in climate.