Peru’s Climate Action Plans Implementation Informality,Capacity and Funding Challenges: The Contributions of Architects

Abstract

This article analyses local Climate Action Plans (CAPs) in Peru. It identifies the factors that affect their implementation at the city level and highlights the roles of architects and urban planners in their development. It follows capacity-building activities for local governments carried out by a joint initiative by two Peruvian universities—Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (School of Environmental Engineering) in 2022, and the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism, and Arts) in 2023—which engaged around 200 officials from 37 local governments. The Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) National Strategy in Peru (2022–2024) had the goal of promoting CAPs through local governments. This goal is analysed by its achievements, limitations and evolution over time. The methodology combined an online survey with three case studies based on structured interviews with local officials. Architects and urban planners are pivotal in putting CAPs into practice, yet their potential is often limited within the context of informal practices, weak institutional capacity and scarce resources. The capacity for effective CAP implementation is stronger where formal processes, financial support and public demand converge, and weaker where dependency on external funding and structural gaps persist. In the most fragile cases, the absence of political, technical and financial support can undermine even the most committed initiatives.