there are also significant opportunities for disaster risk reduction response and reconstruction in cities including through land use planning building codes and regulations risk assessments monitoring and early warning and buildingbackbetter response and reconstruction approaches the response of cities to the challenges of climate change has been fragmented and significant gaps exist between the rhetoric of addressing climate change and the realities of action on the ground the critical factor shaping urban responses to climate change is government capacity which is hindered by factors that are institutional technical economic or political in character in developing countries where resources are particularly limited municipal authorities might be hesitant to invest in climate change adaptation given the many competing issues on their urban agendas