Governance and social contract for climate, peace and security
When: 22 October 2025 | 15:00- 16:30
Format: Online side event
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Global crises increasingly converge in cities, where climate shocks, conflict, and social inequality intersect. Climate change is reshaping urban life: cities are warming at nearly twice the global average, 64 percent of the urban population faces high disaster exposure, and urban climate loss and damage are mounting, especially where inadequate housing and infrastructure amplify vulnerability. Today, 1.1 billion people live in informal settlements, a stark indicator of fragility and systemic inequality. At the same time, cities are hotspots of violence and insecurity. In 2022, urban welfare engulfed an estimated 50 million people. At the same time, conflicts are increasingly waged between domestic groups such as militias and criminal gangs rather than between states - dynamics that often play out in urban areas. These overlapping pressures make cities (potentially) centres of climate insecurity, especially where sound urban and multilevel governance is lacking. Yet, cities are remarkably neglected in the growing literature on, and response to, the climate change-conflict nexus.
Against this backdrop, UN-Habitat and partners will convene an online BCSC side event, forming part of a peer learning webinar series on urban climat,e peace, and security run by the Climate Security Mechanism, adelphi and the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. The session will focus on governance and the social urban contract (the implicit or explicit agreements defining rights and obligations between city residents and authorities) as a critical but under-examined foundation for climate resilient and peaceful urban futures. Moving beyond enforcement-led notions of security, the discussion will explore how inclusive, accountable and innovative governance can reduce climate vulnerabilities and prevent insecurity and conflict. Participants will examine the dynamics of urban fragility, legitimacy, and informality, and their implications for climate, peace and security, with particular attention to adequate housing and urban basic services.
Guiding question:
In the face of converging climate and security crises, what governance innovations are needed to ensure cities become centres of resilience rather than instability?
The format will feature sharp, thought-provoking interventions from experts and practitioners, followed by an interactive exchange with participants. Insights will feed into a Climate Security Mechanism Policy Brief to be launched at the 2026 EnPAx conference, helping ensure that CPS frameworks reflect the realities of today's rapidly urbanising world.
Return to BCSC's 2025 official side events