Potential drivers and barriers of the integration of mitigation and adaptation action plans from cities in Latin America and the Caribbean

It is widely accepted that the impact of climate change causes socioeconomic and environmental damage and hinder societies from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), 80% of the total population lives in cities and estimates show that the extreme poverty rate of the region can increase by an additional 5% by 2030 due to climate change. In this context, LAC countries strive to undertake climaterelated actions and discover more efficient and effective measures to cope with climate-related issues. Studies on the integration of mitigation and adaptation action plans have increased since 2007, when the interrelationships between mitigation and adaptation was addressed in the IPCC AR4. However, research on city-level measures have been conducted much less than those on national or international policies, even though local actions are substantial to actualize high level climate policies and to achieve objectives for sustainable development. This study focuses on identifying potential driving and constraining factors for the level of integration of mitigation and adaptation action plans from 44 cities of 16 countries in the LAC region. Different types of policies, such as climate change plan, sustainable development plan, and strategic plan with climate action plans, are analyzed to evaluate current level of integration of mitigation and adaptation. Institutional, socioeconomic and environmental factors selected from literature review are tested to explain the relationships between factors and the level of integration and to identify potential drivers for and barriers to the level of integration of climate actions in target cities. The results indicate that 44 target cities show middle-level of integration on average, with 3 potential driving factors and 2 constraining factors identified. The three potential driving factors are: regional networks (1) Federation of Latin American Cities, Municipalities and Associations (FLACMA); (2) Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities (UCCI); and (3) contributions of donor agencies to developing climate-related action plans. On the other hand, the potential constraining factors are: (1) national common climate fund; and (2) global network Urban Low Emissions Development Strategy (Urban LEDS). What seems common here is that both driving and constraining factors emanate from institutional aspects, and the strongest relationship is observed between the existence of donor agencies’ contributions to developing action plans and the level of integration of mitigation and adaptation.