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 18 / 21 to disseminate environmental protection information; regularly organize activities such as Cleanup Day and Arbor Day to encourage residents to participate in practical actions to improve the environment; formulate uniform information disclosure standards, expand the scope of environmental information disclosure, increase the frequency of disclosure, and promote the construction of digital platforms. Fourth, actively promote green energy transition and reduce the city’s dependence on mineral resources. Establish special funds to support the development and utilization of non-fossil energy sources, such as wind and solar power; encourage enterprises to adopt advanced production technologies and equipment to improve energy efficiency; develop a circular economy model and strengthen international cooperation on clean energy technologies. This paper also has some limitations. First, China’s climate change adaptation efforts started relatively late, and its statistical system is not yet fully developed. The design of the indicator system and data collection are also constrained, and further optimization of the indicator system design is needed. Second, while the Synthetic DID method used in this paper’s policy evaluation combines the advantages of the traditional DID and synthetic control methods, it also has methodological limitations, such as reliance on optimization algorithms for weight selection and difficulty handling multiple

interventions. Third, the study focuses on China’s CACCP policy, which has specific regional and institutional limitations. In the future, we will continue to improve the urban climate resilience evaluation system and policy assessment methods. We also plan to expand existing research in the following areas: First, based on the dimension of social equity, we will explore the differentiated effects of CACCP policies in ethnic minority communities and low-income groups; second, we will strengthen cross-country comparisons to analyze the moderating role of institutional environments on policy out- comes; third, we will assess whether the CACCP policy has triggered systemic transformations, such as shifts toward a low-carbon industrial structure. Supporting information S1 File. Data. (XLS) S2 File. Entropy method. (DOCX) Author contributions Conceptualization: Ana Yin. Formal analysis: Ana Yin, Ziqi Liu. Investigation: Ziqi Liu. Resources: Ana Yin. Visualization: Ziqi Liu. Writing – original draft: Ana Yin. Writing – review & editing: Ana Yin. References 1. IPCC. Climate change 2023: synthesis report. Geneva: IPCC. 2023. 2. UNEP. Adaptation gap report 2023. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau. 2023. 3. Schoenefeld JJ, Schulze K, Bruch N. The diffusion of climate change adaptation policy. WIREs Climate Change. 2022;13(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/ wcc.775