Ethiopia: Addis Ababa Emerges As World's Second Most Climate-Resilient City

What the report says

Addis Ababa has been ranked the world’s second most climate-resilient major city in a new assessment by geospatial artificial intelligence institute AlphaGeo, according to the Ethiopian News Agency report distributed by AllAfrica. The study, titled “How Climate Resilient Are the World’s Largest Cities?”, evaluated 72 large cities using AlphaGeo’s Climate Risk & Resilience Index and measured how much adaptation efforts reduce exposure to climate hazards.

In the ranking, Addis Ababa received a resilience-adjusted risk score of 10, placing it just behind Chicago, which scored 8. Other cities near the top included Melbourne and Barcelona, while Paris and Buenos Aires followed. The report also noted strong results for other African cities, including Nairobi and Johannesburg, and said elevation and climate geography helped lower their baseline exposure to some risks.

AlphaGeo’s assessment looked at six major hazards: inland and coastal flooding, heat stress, drought, wildfires and hurricane winds. It also emphasized that resilience depends not only on geography but on infrastructure, governance, planning and investment in adaptation. The report cautioned that citywide averages can hide differences between neighborhoods, but said the findings are meant to help policymakers and investors identify where adaptation is working and where more spending may be needed.

For Addis Ababa, the result is presented as international recognition of the capital’s relative climate resilience at a time of growing environmental pressure and urban expansion.