Introduction

While Europe, North America, and Latin America already have most of their population living in towns and cities,1 an additional 2.5 billion people worldwide are expected to live in urban areas by 2050, with up to 90 percent of this increase taking place in Asia and Africa. Indeed, 35 percent of this urban growth is projected to occur within just three countries – India, China and Nigeria (UNDESA 2018). As cities grow, so does the number of low-income urban residents. Poverty is becoming an increasingly urban phenomenon, with many low-income urban residents living in rapidly expanding informal settlements with inadequate basic services. In addition, there is a lack of financing, resources, and institutional capacity to support the livelihoods, wellbeing and resilience of the urban poor (Beard et al. 2016). As a consequence of this growth, cities are becoming more materially, socially, and spatially fragmented. Everyday life for urban residents involves “fragments of stuff: toilets that often seem to be broken or inadequate, water pipes that don’t keep their pressure or quality, houses that demand constant labor and maintenance…Urban life, for a growing number of people across the world, is more and more about the struggle of managing infrastructure, housing, and services that are unreliable or unable to meet basic needs” (McFarlane 2021, p3).

At the same time, there is a need for a global climate transition, with a consensus to reduce emissions to ‘net zero’ by mid-century. Urban and infrastructure transitions are essential if this global need is to be met (de Coninck et al. 2018) and will include taking action towards lower carbon alternatives before cities lock themselves into unsustainable and unjust development pathways. The climate transition and the urban transition are taking place in parallel, with significant implications for both agendas. However, the way in which these transitions take place will not affect all people equally. For this reason, this paper examines the components that are necessary for just transitions in cities and proposes approaches that can support sustainable development, low-carbon pathways, and resilience.