Applying a "shared learning" approach in (ACCCRN) has helped to create or strengthen networks, build appreciation for complexity and uncertainty among stakeholders, provide a space for deliberating concepts such as vulnerability and resilience, and build knowledge and capacities for stakeholders to engage and represent their own interests. However, shared learning approaches face considerable challenges navigating politicized urban environments, in which the nature and values of existing systems are contested. This article suggests that deliberate and strategic intervention by facilitators may contribute to more transformative change on behalf of equitable, socially just outcomes. For this reason, it cautions against seeing urban climate vulnerability as a technical challenge and shared learning as simply a technical "toolkit" for building resilience. Keywords: Local Empowerment; Shared Learning Processes; Social Vulnerability; Monitoring and Evaluation