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The National Urban Policy is a tool for government and other stakeholders that can assist with achieving more sustainable urban development. It also facilitates an enabling environment that allows stakeholders to take advantage of urban opportunity. How to address climate change in cities and human settlements represents one of the most pressing challenges facing urban policy-makers today.

This Guide recommends how to mainstream such considerations into National Urban Policy, thus helping to empower national governments, local governments, and other stakeholders to effectively address climate change. There are 16 recommendations in total, spanning carbon-cutting, governance and adaptation to climate change and its impacts. Chapter 3 focuses on building climate resilience ('adaptation') and includes seven recommendations (p. 14-20): 

• Promote applied research into the risks associated with the impacts of climate change, as well as other hazards, in urban areas. Provide for the use of findings to inform decision-making. 
• Encourage and support the development of local level climate change vulnerability assessments that include an analysis of climate resilience and adaptive capacity, to inform policy-making at all levels. Promote multi-hazard assessments. 
• Promote the mapping of hazards, including of climate-related hazards that may evolve over time. 
• Plan human settlements, regulate land use, and provide critical infrastructure and services in a way that takes into account risks and builds resilience, including climate resilience. To this end, encourage and support local level plans and strategies to build climate resilience. 
• Prioritize actions that build the resilience of vulnerable and marginalized communities. When possible upgrade slums and informal settlements in situ so as to build resilience to shocks and stresses, including those brought about by climate change impacts. 
• As part of adaptation efforts, promote the protection and restoration of ecosystems and natural buffers. 
• Provide for regional planning as one means to protect ecosystems and guard against ‘mal-adaptation’.