A market vendor sells pineapples to customers at Accra's busy Tema Station Market.
Cities are investing billions in adaptation infrastructure—from cooling systems and flood protection to resilient transport and energy networks. Yet one critical form of infrastructure remains largely invisible: the workers and economic systems that keep cities functioning every day.
Millions of informal workers already provide services that are essential to urban resilience. Waste recyclers reduce waste emissions and the use of new materials. Street and market vendors sustain food security. Home-based workers maintain local production systems linked to global brands. Domestic workers and other care workers allow people to have time for their jobs .Informal transport workers connect people where formal systems fall short. These are not peripheral activities: they are part of the operating infrastructure of cities.
This conversation will explore why evidence has not translated into investment, and what must change for organized informal workers to be recognized not as beneficiaries of urban adaptation, but as part of the infrastructure that climate finance is designed to strengthen.
Bringing together researchers, city networks, philanthropy, and worker organizations, the panel will examine how cities and funders can rethink adaptation investments to accelerate climate action and build more resilient, inclusive, and effective urban systems.
Speakers
- Sonia Dias, Urban Policies and Waste Specialist, WIEGO
- Oksana Abboud, International Coordinator, StreetNet International
- Lyndlin Moma, Director of Strategic Impact, IIED
- Jazmin Burgess, Director, Inclusive Climate Action, C40
- Madeleine Thomson, Head, Climate Impacts and Adaptation, Wellcome Trust
The panel will be moderated by Adrian di Giovanni, Team Leader, Economies and Justice Program at the International Development Research Centre of Canada.
About New York City Climate Week 2026
Climate Week NYC, hosted by Climate Group, is the world’s largest climate event and a global platform for advancing climate and economic progress.
It brings together more than 100,000 people, including leaders across business, government, finance and civil society, across more than 1,000 events.
This year’s Climate Week NYC will focus on the energy, the impact, and the action required to remove the barriers to climate progress and deliver change at speed and scale.
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