Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Avoid urban development policy that fuels climate risk

Nature Climate Change volume 15, pages 804–805 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Urban development policies, designed to improve city resilience, could unintentionally increase the exposure to climate risk. This Comment discusses the impact of misaligned incentives, miscalculated benefits and costs, and overlooked behavioural responses on policy outcomes, as well as future directions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Fig. 1: Factors contributing to increased climate risk exposure in cities.

References

  1. Lwasa, S. et al. in Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) 861–952 (IPCC, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2023).

  2. Dodman, D. et al. in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (eds Pörtner, H.-O. et al.) 907–1040 (IPCC, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2023).

  3. World Urbanization Prospects 2018 (United Nations, 2019).

  4. Balboni, C. Am. Econ. Rev. 115, 77–116 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sastry, P., Sen, I. & Tenekedjieva, A.-M. Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets (NBER, 2023).

  6. Kelly, D. L. & Molina, R. J. Assoc. Environ. Resour. Econ. 10, 1405–1438 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bradt, J. & Aldy, J. Private Benefits from Public Investment in Climate Adaptation and Resilience (NBER, 2025); https://doi.org/10.3386/w33633

  8. Dundas, S. J. J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 85, 62–80 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Agarwal, S., Qin, Y., Sing, T. F. & Zhan, C. J. Public Econ. 241, 105290 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gourevitch, J. D. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 13, 250–257 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hsiao, A. Sea Level Rise and Urban Adaptation in Jakarta Working Paper (2023).

  12. Kousky, C., Michel-Kerjan, E. O. & Raschky, P. A. J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 87, 150–164 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Finance, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Sumit Agarwal

  2. Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Sumit Agarwal, Mingxuan Fan & Yu Qin

Authors
  1. Sumit Agarwal
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mingxuan Fan
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yu Qin
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

S.A., M.F. and Y.Q. contributed equally to the conceptualization, original draft, review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu Qin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Agarwal, S., Fan, M. & Qin, Y. Avoid urban development policy that fuels climate risk. Nat. Clim. Chang. 15, 804–805 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02365-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02365-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing