Lamson-Hall Calls for a Focus on Secondary Cities
in Developing Countries After Attending COP26
Research Scholar Patrick Lamson-Hall attended COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, where a new international agreement to address climate change was reached, the Glasgow Climate Pact. In “The Glasgow Climate Pact Can Succeed,” written for Cities Alliance, he discusses the limited conversation had on urban planning and explains its urgent need, especially for developing countries. Lamson-Hall mentions the new funding available and proposes how it can aid urban-expansion planning, particularly with smaller, secondary cities:
It’s particularly critical that [the Green Climate Fund and the World Bank] acknowledge the vital role that secondary cities will play in the coming decades. This should be backed with dedicated funding commitments: A special facility for managing climate change in secondary cities should be created, with a focus on preparing cities for new migrants through urban-expansion planning and other comparable techniques.