Coastal megacities pose a particular challenge for climate change adaptation and
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activity, and consumption—the majority of which are in the Global South—are
often extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts such as sea level rise and
extreme weather. This paper unpacks these complexities through a case study of
Metropolitan Manila, the capital of the Philippines, which represents an example
of “double exposure” to climate change impacts and globalization. The city is
experiencing tremendous population and economic growth, yet Manila is plagued by
frequent natural disasters, congestion, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, and
income inequality. The need for metro-wide planning and infrastructure
transformations to address these problems is widely recognized, but governance
challenges are a major barrier. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and other
primary and secondary sources, I argue that climate change and globalization, in
combination with Manila’s historical and physical context, critically shape
metro-wide infrastructure planning. Focusing on electricity and green
infrastructure, I find that the largely decentralized and privatized urban
governance regime is perpetuating a fragmented and unequal city, which may
undermine urban climate resilience. This study extends the double exposure
framework to examine how global processes interact with contextual factors to
critically shape urban infrastructure planning, and how the resulting system
conforms to theorized characteristics of urban climate resilience. In doing so,
I help to connect emerging literatures on double exposure, urban infrastructure
planning, and urban climate resilience.
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