How can climate adaptation policy enhance urban climate resilience? Empirical evidence from China

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335736 November 6, 2025 17 / 21 public environmental concern positively moderate the policy’s implementation effects, while mineral resource dependency exerts an adverse moderating effect. The main similarities between this study’s findings and the latest research literature on climate adaptation are as follows: First, this study empirically confirms that the CACCP policy can significantly enhance urban climate resilience, consistent with the findings of Friesenecker et al. (2025) and Luo et al. (2025), which point to the positive impact of cli- mate adaptation policies [66,67]. Second, this study’s definition of urban climate resilience aligns with the emphasis on the systemic and dynamic nature of climate resilience highlighted in the literature by Zorita et al. (2025) and Reckien et al. (2025), breaking away from a single-dimensional perspective [73,74]. Third, this study identified the mediating mechanism of green bonds, which, together with the research of Pitzén et al. (2025) and Osei et al. (2025), jointly emphasized the key role of financial instruments in climate adaptation [67,69,70]. This study’s main differences and innovations compared to existing literature are as follows: First, existing literature mainly focuses on climate adaptation policies in countries such as the European Union, the United States, and Australia [69,73,75,76]. This study focuses on ecologically fragile regions in China (the Yellow River Basin). It systematically examines the effects of China’s CACCP policy on enhancing urban

climate resilience, providing valuable insights for developing countries. Second, this paper reveals the role of green bonds as a channel for implementing climate adaptation policies, providing insights into the institutional black box of EU financial integration [69] and private sector incentive mechanisms [70]. Third, the study finds that education and public environmen- tal concerns can optimize policy effectiveness. At the same time, mineral resource dependence (the resource curse) has an inhibitory effect, providing quantitative evidence to complement research on equitable resilience [71] and racial vulner- ability [72]. To further optimize the effectiveness of the CACCP policy, this paper proposes the following recommendations: First, innovate climate investment portfolios and strengthen the role of financial instruments. The government should promote the innovation of diversified climate finance tools such as climate bonds, climate credits, climate funds, and climate risk insurance to meet the financial needs of short-, medium-, and long-term climate adaptation construction projects. Second, increase investment in education and enhance educational equity. Continue to increase financial allocations to educa- tion, ensuring that the growth rate of education funding exceeds that of regular fiscal revenue; implement scholarship and grant systems to promote educational equity; incorporate courses on the relationship between humans and nature into education systems at all levels. Third, media publicity, community activities, and information disclosure should be

utilized to raise public awareness of environmental issues. Use television, radio, newspapers, and social media platforms Fig 8. Parallel trend test results for DID method. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335736.g008