Using the Earth Hour City Challenge to identify high leverage points for footprint reduction in cities

Abstract

Urban footprint reduction will be the key to climate adaptation and mitigation as most of the footprint of our civilization has its source in cities. WWF Earth Hour City Challenge has been collecting data on carbon footprint reduction commitments and actions from cities since 2010 with 166 cities participating in the Challenge during its 2014 iteration. A research project now envisions to build a collaborative research team to identify transformative actions for urban footprint reduction utilizing and building on the Challenge data. The project will result in delineation of transition pathways for key urban typologies (especially fast growing cities), will help develop a framework for identifying high leverage points for phase change in complex urban and other systems, and will propose tools for selecting ideal indicator systems for different types of cities and different urban governance objectives.