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 4 / 21 emission reduction” [14,20]. Especially in the current situation where global mitigation actions have failed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and climate warming is increasing, only by focusing on improving the comprehensive capac- ity of cities to adapt to climate change in the long term can urban systems achieve high-quality, sustainable development. We define the concept of “urban climate resilience” as the comprehensive ability of cities to adapt to long-term climate change trends, encompassing stability, coordination, and transformation. Among these, “stability” reflects the ability of the city to quickly resist, self-recover, and stabilize the regular operation of the urban system when it is subjected to extreme climate shocks. “coordination” reflects the ability of the city to actively take measures to coordinate the relationship between economic growth and climate change. “transformation” reflects the ability of the city to promote the reshaping of its system structure and the transformation of organizational functions. 2.2. Policy background China has attached equal importance to mitigation and adaptation in addressing climate change. While promoting the carbon reduction strategy, China actively explores constructing climate-adaptive cities. In February 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the

CACCP policy, which, for the first time, established 28 cities (districts) as pilot areas for building climate-adaptive cities. In June 2022, China released the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035, outlining a comprehensive national strategy for climate adaptation. In August 2023, China issued a notice on deepening the CACCP policy. In May 2024, 39 cities (districts) were established as pilot cities for deepening the construction of climate-adaptive cities. Based on the above development of China’s climate adaptation policies, it is evident that the Chinese government attaches great impor- tance to the severe trend of climate change. It promotes the combination of policy pilot experiments and a comprehensive approach, aiming to summarize the experience gained from practical exploration and seek progress. 2.3. Research hypothesis China’s CACCP policy was issued and implemented in February 2017. The policy document clearly states that the objec- tive is “to enhance cities’ ability to adapt to climate change.” It encompasses a range of strategies and actions aimed at reducing the vulnerability of urban systems to climate change and extreme weather events [24]. First, the CACCP policy has prompted local governments in pilot areas to actively engage in climate adaptation actions, including establishing special contingency plans, improving disaster prevention standards, and enhancing risk monitoring and early warning capabilities [25]. These actions will enhance cities’ ability to respond to sudden extreme climate events, improving their

short-term resilience. Second, the CACCP policy was jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Its core is establishing a cross-departmental collaborative governance mechanism and a target coordination framework, integrating climate adaptation goals into mainstream urban planning, land use, and industrial policies. Through mandatory assessments, target breakdown evaluations, and fiscal incentives and penalties, the policy “forces” local governments to pursue green and low-carbon development paths [7]. This development path alleviates the contradiction between urban economic growth and carbon emissions reduction, directly enhancing urban climate resilience’s medium- and long-term coordination capacity. Third, the CACCP policy pro- vides dedicated financial support to help pilot initiatives to overcome institutional barriers, such as establishing resilience demonstration zones and promoting climate-adaptive land use. The policy also encourages local authorities to introduce international best practices and technologies. It promotes the development of indigenous, climate-resilient technologies, including water recycling, passive energy-efficient buildings, and resilient agriculture [15]. These measures promote the forward-looking and fundamental restructuring of urban infrastructure, industrial structure, spatial layout, and management models, catalyzing and enhancing the long-term transformative capacity. Based on the above analysis, we put forward the following research hypothesis.