Climate Action Plans Research Articles

Urban climate adaptation and mitigation action plans: A critical review

Local governments are expected now more than ever to lead climate action planning as climate change intensifies and urbanization increases rapidly. However, studies indicate limitations in the comprehensiveness and level of integration of adaptation and mitigation in existing climate action plans. To develop suitable climate action plans that are comprehensive and consistent with globally accepted standards and benchmarks, this study proposed an Urban Climate Action Planning framework and pilot-tested it with 257 urban climate action plans. Overall, 43 criteria are included in the framework across three stages of climate planning. The pilot test revealed that more than half of the sampled plans have a medium level of suitability, with 39% having a weak level of suitability. About 51% of plans from Europe have a weak level of suitability. Surprisingly, none of the plans sampled from Africa and Latin America achieved a weak level of suitability despite lacking a significant share of global climate research and development funding. A Kruskal-Wallis test shows a statistically significant association between stages of climate planning and (a) city types (p-value of 0.004326) and (b) year of adoption or publication of climate plans and suitability scores (p-value of 0.0001027). Urban climate action plans adopted or published more recently (2018–2022) are likely more suitable than those adopted or published earlier. The sampled urban climate action plans from the Global South had higher average suitability scores than those from the Global North. The study presents key findings and considerations for urban climate action planning and future research.

Reducing Environmental Impacts at a Midwestern Academic Medical Center: Making Carbon Emissions Reduction a Reality

(1) Background: Human-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the largest contributor to climate change worldwide. Climate change negatively impacts human and planetary health, threatening the existence of life on earth. The healthcare industry is responsible for approximately 8.5% of carbon emissions in the United States. Measuring baseline GHG emissions is the first step in emissions reduction. However, very few models of measurement exist for health care organizations. This project aimed to develop and implement a program to measure and track GHG emissions at a midwestern academic medical center (MAMC) and to educate staff on how to manage the process. (2) Methods: A Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle and Quality Improvement methodology were used to develop, implement, and assess a standardized GHG emission inventory process to measure Scope 1 and Scope 2 baseline emissions and provide virtual training and education to the accountable staff. A pre- and post-survey design was used to measure the knowledge and readiness of the staff after the implementation of the GHG inventory training. (3) Results: The GHG inventory process was validated through an external verification process, and the measurement of Scope 1 and Scope 2 baseline GHG emissions was completed and verified for accuracy through a data comparison review. The pre-post-training survey showed an increase in the knowledge and readiness of staff to maintain a GHG inventory. (4) Conclusions: This work shows the feasibility of obtaining baseline GHG emissions data at large medical centers. It represents the initial phase of the overarching goal to develop site-wide and system-wide carbon reduction strategies and a climate action plan within this health system.

How can cities achieve accelerated systemic decarbonization? Analysis of six frontrunner cities

Globally, many cities have pledged to reach net zero emissions by mid-century and formulated climate action plans (CAPs) to pursue this goal. Attainment of net zero requires accelerated systemic decarbonization measures to catalyze fundamental changes across multiple societal systems simultaneously. Yet the extant literature has not conceptually clarified conditions leading to accelerated systemic decarbonization in cities. This research therefore aims to: (1) conceptualize strategies that contribute to accelerated systemic decarbonization at the sub-national level and develop a framework for empirically identifying these; and (2) assess the extent to which CAPs in cities known for progressive climate policies embody these characteristics. This involved examination of evidence from CAPs and related documents in six cities: Copenhagen, Leeds, Oslo, San Francisco, Australian Capital Territory and Kyoto. Findings show that San Francisco's climate actions are the most indicative of accelerated systemic decarbonization. In other cities, although many ingredients for accelerated systemic decarbonization are in place, several missed opportunities to achieve more rapid and transformative decarbonization outcomes were identified. These include lack of consideration of scope 3 emissions and limited participatory governance measures as well as absence of economic planning, climate budgets and financial indicators to estimate the benefits or costs of various climate-mitigation actions.

Analysis of the Final Energy Use by Sectors in City of Vidin

According to the initiative "The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM)" and within the framework of the EU-funded "Positive Energy Areas Project", the Municipality of Vidin should establish a "Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan". The city's sustainable energy development plans aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% up to 2030 and develop a comprehensive climate change adaptation strategy at the local level or integrate it into existing plans. The initiative envisages actions both for mitigating climate change and also for climate adaptation at the local level. This paper presents the results of the first part of the process for establishing the "Sustainable Energy and Action Plan of the Municipality of Vidin", including the assessment and calculation of the final energy use in the city by the different sectors. The research aims to present the main data sources necessary for СО2 emissions inventory at the city level and to process, validate, and analyze used statistical data for defining the final energy use by different sectors in one Bulgarian municipality. The purpose of this assessment is to determine final energy use by different sectors and by types of energy sources. The results from the analysis and evaluation of the final energy use in the sectors "Residential buildings", "Municipal buildings", "Industry", "Tertiary buildings", "Public lighting" and "Transport" will serve to conduct a baseline of CO2 emissions inventory, which is a part of the “Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan”. These results also could help the local authorities and key energy players to identify and implement the most suitable measures and actions for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Trading greens for heated surfaces: Land surface temperature and perceived health risk in Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana

The unsustainable expansion of cities is generating urban heat islands(UHIs) by exchanging (trading) vegetation cover (green) for built impervious surfaces which is associated with heat-related health risks, globally. This phenomenon is exacerbated by climate change and anthropogenic activities like urban population growth, particularly in African cities. This study explores the spatio-temporal trends of land surface temperature (LST), land use land cover (LULC) and their economic and health risks in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) of Ghana, from 1991 to 2021. We extracted LST/LULC information from Landsat datasets to perform change analysis, alongside an online survey across 56 communities on how LST relatesto economic and human health risks perceptions of residents. The results show urbanization of GAMA is trading greens for heated surfaces, impacting communities’ health risks. While the built environment grew (8.6%), the vegetation cover declined (2.5%) and the mean LST rose (0.8⁰C) in 25 years. A 30⁰C LST corresponds to the point of inflexion of exchanging green vegetative cover for heated built surfaces. The forest community of Kisseman, the populous community of Dansoman and the harbour city of Tema corresponded to the first, fourth and fifth LST quintiles, changing at −0.05⁰C, 0.06⁰C and 0.164⁰C per year. The common health risks include discomfort from heavy sweating, headaches, dehydration, thirst and skin rashes. These results call for climate action and green spatial planning through urban forestry and environmentalism in GAMA. For urban resilience and sustainable cities, we advocate green-cooling multi-purpose housing, roads, and industrial infrastructure.

Assessing the barriers and facilitators of climate action planning in local governments: a two-round survey of expert opinion

BackgroundClimate change is one of the greatest threats to public health in this century. The UK is one of six countries that has enshrined in law a commitment to become net zero by 2050. However, there is a lack of guidance and structure for local government in the UK, which has responsibility for public health, to reach this goal and help their communities mitigate and adapt to the health and health inequality impacts of climate change. This study aimed to identify common barriers and facilitators related to addressing the health and health inequality impacts of climate change in local governments.MethodsUsing Normalisation Process Theory, we developed a two-round survey for people working in local authorities to identify the barriers and facilitators to including the health and health inequality impact of climate change in their climate action plans. The survey was delivered online via Qualtrics software. In the first-round respondents were able to express their views on barriers and facilitators and in the second round they ranked common themes identified from the first round. Two hundred and fifty people working in local government were invited to take part and n = 28 (11.2%) completed the first round of the survey and n = 14 completed the second round. Thematic analysis was used in Round 1 to identify common themes and weighted rankings were used to assess key barriers and facilitators in Round 2.ResultsKey facilitators were the need to save money on energy, and successful partnership working already in place including across local government, with local communities and external stakeholders. Key barriers were insufficient staff, resources and lack of support from management/leaders, and lack of local evidence.ConclusionTo mitigate and adapt to the health impacts of climate change, local government must nurture a culture of innovation and collaboration to ensure that different departments work together This means not just working with external partners, but also collaborating and co-producing with communities to achieve health equity and mitigate the debilitating effect of climate change on public health.

Local Climate Action Planning – The Land Use Perspective

For more than thirty years, municipalities across the United States have created Climate Action Plans (CAPs) to address the consequences of climate change within their communities. Scholars have scrutinized the efficacy of local CAPs since their inception, alleging that many hold nothing more than abstract and visionary statements. Indeed, early CAPs often provided detailed plans but lacked corresponding accountability or metrics for bringing those plans to fruition. However, more recent CAPs have sought to ground their aspirations in land use law by integrating the CAPs into comprehensive plans, amending zoning codes to meet urban agriculture goals, and even providing expedited zoning procedures for CAP-compliant developers.

Exploring the association between health, local area characteristics and climate action plans in the UK: Cross-sectional analysis using administrative data from 2018 and a citizen science ranking of climate action plans from 2021

Local government has an important role to play in mitigation and adaption to climate change. In the UK, 82% of all emissions fall within the scope of local government. However, in UK climate legislation there is no statutory requirement for local government to address climate change. Eighty percent of local authorities have declared a climate emergency and developed climate action plans. The aim of this study is to explore the association between social vulnerability (poor health, financial resources, deprivation, house prices) and the quality of climate action plans as measured by a scorecard system created by Climate Emergency UK. We hypothesis that areas with lower levels of social vulnerability will have higher quality climate plans. We utilised a citizen science created dataset ranking local government’s climate action plans and administrative data on local area characteristics related to social vulnerability at the local authority level. Descriptive analysis and multivariate regression were employed. We found a very small but significant association between total weighted score, central government funding and average house prices. For the individual dimensions of the quality of climate action plans, higher male life expectancy and house prices were associated with better commitment and integration and having a greater percentage of the population over the age of 65 was associated with a lower score in this dimension. More urban areas and less deprived areas had higher scores for planning climate education, skills and training. We suggest that greater national guidance is needed including sharing good practice on how to build community support and additional funding for climate change mitigation/adaption in particular for education, skills, and training in more deprived areas may help to prevent variations in climate action plans increasing inequalities.

Biodiversity consequences of long-term active forest restoration in selectively-logged tropical rainforests

Forest restoration figures prominently on climate action plans, both in the public and private sector. Restoration has the potential to enhance forest recovery and carbon storage, yet could cause unanticipated alterations of forest biodiversity and functioning. In particular little is known about the long-lasting effects of active forest restoration. We therefore evaluated the effects of such management on adult trees and seedlings of actively restored forest to comparable areas where forest regenerated naturally. We investigated a forest site in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo that is recovering from selective logging between 1981 and 1991. Some of the area has been left to naturally regenerate, and some areas have been actively restored for production purposes between 1994 and 2004 through climber cutting and enrichment-planting of exclusively indigenous tree species. We hypothesized that active forest restoration affects forest diversity and composition negatively (i.e., reduction in diversity and presence of pioneer species), and that the silvicultural interventions had long-lasting effects (i.e., higher density of species that were planted, fewer climbers).Surprisingly, our findings suggest that active forest restoration promoted the recovery of adult tree species diversity, expressed as Shannon Diversity Index, and in particular promoted rare species. In actively restored plots, the number of adult individuals of tree species that were planted was enhanced, and the density of liana seedlings was reduced, demonstrating that these silvicultural interventions were effective and had long-lasting effects on the forest structure. Nevertheless, we could not detect differences in the number of seedlings of species that were planted nor in the density of adult lianas between actively restored and naturally regenerating forest sites. We also did not find differences in the species diversity of seedlings, but we observed a compositional shift in the species community for seedlings that were younger than one year. Furthermore, we did not detect a difference between actively restored and naturally regenerating forest plots in the abundance of the present tree guilds (i.e., pioneer or late-succession species) for neither adult trees nor seedlings, as all of our forest plots were dominated by late-succession species.Our results show that active forest restoration can promote species diversity and highlight that active forest restoration focusing on biomass production does not need to adversely affect biodiversity. This work emphasizes the potential of active forest restoration on biodiversity and potentially other key ecosystem functions which are needed to be restored in order to mitigate climate change and the current ecological crisis.

Empirical linkages of the construction sector, intensive energy consumption, and economic openness with chemical oxygen demand pollution.

Though construction sector development and economic openness contribute to regional economic development, they have also been debated to pose some environmental challenges. Along these lines, we explored the long- and short-term connections of intensive energy consumption, economic openness, and construction sector development with the chemical oxygen demand throughout the scales of regional development of China's 30 provincial units over the 2004-2021 period. Theoretically, we contribute to the existing knowledge by incorporating chemical oxygen demand pollution, construction sector development, and economic openness to the Kaya identity's baseline framework. Empirically, we apply a series of advanced methods of panel data econometrics for robust results. Our key findings are as follows: First, we revealed a long-term stable cointegrating association among our variables of interest. Second, using the common correlated effect mean group estimator, we unfolded that the intensive energy consumption showed a chemical oxygen demand pollution reduction influence in both the long and short term, demonstrating the most substantial influence in the high regional development panel while expressing the least powerful influence the least regional development setting. Third, we unveiled that economic openness and construction sector development showed a linear chemical oxygen demand pollution enhancement influence in moderately and least developed regions. Nevertheless, both established an inverted U-shaped linkage with chemical oxygen demand pollution for the whole country as well as for high regional development data samples. Eventually, we found consistent estimates across long- and short-term investigations regarding signs of relationships; however, long-term effects remained more powerful than short-term ones. These findings would serve as factual scientific knowledge to help local as well as national governments create the optimal environmental regulations for the construction sector to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially the Climate Action Plan (i.e., SDG-13).

U.S. cities’ integration and evaluation of equity considerations into climate action plans

While cities in the United States play an active role developing and implementing climate policy, urban centers are often sites of socio-spatial inequity. Thus, we explore how cities grapple with these inequities in their Climate Action Plans (CAPs). While CAPs can empower cities to engage in equitable planning practices that prioritize marginalized communities, little empirical research examines how equity goals are measured and evaluated. We find that among large U.S. cities with CAPs, less than one third include measurable indicators to evaluate progress towards achieving equity goals. Across climate adaptation and mitigation planning, nineteen cities consider equity goals as they relate to ten thematic areas, six outcomes, and five dimensions of equity. We suggest ways forward for cities to develop, implement, and measure a diverse and holistic set of equity indicators to use in their climate planning efforts and beyond.

Evaluation of emission reduction and other societal and environmental outcomes: Structured decision making for the Louisiana climate action plan

Climate action planning continues to accelerate rapidly across the globe as communities seek to prepare to thrive in an uncertain future. Climate action planning is a particularly contentious and complex topic in the southern United States, however, because of significant economic reliance on industries that contribute substantially to greenhouse gas emissions, and due to a complicated relationship between industry and persistent racial and economic inequities that contribute to distrust between communities, businesses, and state governments. Within the last decade, research efforts have begun to evaluate approaches used to develop city, state, and national-level climate action plans, finding that planning efforts are often as diverse as the localities they represent. Climate action planning processes that evaluate the potential implications of climate action on greenhouse gas emissions and societal values are often driven by either qualitative stakeholder engagement or by the results of numerical models. While both approaches are valuable, they also have limitations that can result in climate action plans that are unrealistic or unimplementable. Limited research is available that assesses planning efforts that integrate multiple evaluation methodologies. In this study, we evaluate the strengths and limitations of integrating qualitative and quantitative climate action evaluation methodologies in a planning process grounded in structured decision making using Louisiana as a case study. This mixed method planning approach applied both quantitative numerical models and qualitative expert elicitation to evaluate potential implications of climate action for Louisiana. We found that integration of approaches through a transparent, structured, and objectives-orientated process allowed for robust analysis of potential climate actions while engendering process buy-in across diverse stakeholder interests. This process ultimately resulted in the unanimous adoption of Louisiana's climate action plan, characterized by a wholistic and implementable set of climate actions balanced against the values of Louisianians. The process outlined in this study represents a replicable approach for other climate action planning efforts.

From political pledges to quantitative mapping of climate mitigation plans: Comparison of two European cities

BackgroundUrban agglomerates play a crucial role in reaching global climate objectives. Many cities have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, but current emission trends remain unverifiable. Atmospheric monitoring of greenhouse gases offers an independent and transparent strategy to measure urban emissions. However, careful design of the monitoring network is crucial to be able to monitor the most important sectors as well as adjust to rapidly changing urban landscapes.ResultsOur study of Paris and Munich demonstrates how climate action plans, carbon emission inventories, and urban development plans can help design optimal atmospheric monitoring networks. We show that these two European cities display widely different trajectories in space and time, reflecting different emission reduction strategies and constraints due to administrative boundaries. The projected carbon emissions rely on future actions, hence uncertain, and we demonstrate how emission reductions vary significantly at the sub-city level.ConclusionsWe conclude that quantified individual cities’ climate actions are essential to construct more robust emissions trajectories at the city scale. Also, harmonization and compatibility of plans from various cities are necessary to make inter-comparisons of city climate targets possible. Furthermore, dense atmospheric networks extending beyond the city limits are needed to track emission trends over the coming decades.

Canada and ocean climate adaptation: tracking law and policy responses, charting future directions

This research article provides a law and policy summary of climate change adaptation initiatives in Canada at the ocean-climate nexus. Three levels of governance are examined (national, provincial, and Indigenous) with a focus on the Atlantic region. The research method was the review of relevant and newly amended laws, regulations and policy statements, and related commentaries. The roles of the federal government are first described with key developments including the launch of a Climate Adaptation Platform in 2012 to share adaptation experiences and information and release of a National Adaptation Strategy and accompanying Adaptation Action Plan in November 2022. Federal adaptation efforts in the areas of fisheries, aquaculture and shipping are also reviewed along with progress in establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures. Provincial adaptation initiatives are next summarized with a focus on the four Atlantic provinces. Those provinces have established a regional hub, CLIMAtlantic, to provide climate information and advance climate-related research and training. Each province has developed a climate action plan which includes climate adaptation priorities. Indigenous-led climate engagement and adaptation initiatives are finally described including the publication in 2019 of a National Inuit Climate Change Strategy, regional initiatives of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat, and the development of climate adaptation plans by select First Nation communities in the Atlantic region. The paper concludes by discussing future law and policy directions to make Canada more “climate ready.” Adoption of climate adaptation strategies for governmental departments and agencies with ocean and coastal responsibilities should be a priority. Incorporating climate change adaptation responsibilities through legislative and regulatory changes also needs to be considered, for example, by amending Canada’s Oceans Act to recognize the role of oceans in climate adaptations and mitigation, to authorize the designation of MPAs as climate refuges and to require adaptive and dynamic MPA management plans through strict monitoring and timely review provisions. Indigenous peoples must be effectively included in all climate adaptation discussions and planning.

Urban heat governance: examining the role of urban planning

ABSTRACT Heat is an increasing climate risk for cities due to climate change and the urban heat island effect. Extreme heat has inequitable impacts across social, economic, and urban environmental systems. Despite increasing awareness of heat risk, the planning and governance structures for mitigating and managing heat are less understood than those for other climate risks. We studied five large, climatically-diverse U.S. cities to better understand urban heat governance with a focus on the field of urban planning. We first conducted a plan evaluation of these cities’ comprehensive, climate action, and hazard mitigation plans (n = 14) and then interviewed urban planners, resilience professionals, hazard mitigation planners, emergency managers, and public health professionals (n = 22). We found that aspects of heat planning occur across a variety of municipal plans but only a small number of strategies were explicitly framed in terms of heat, suggesting an opportunity to better connect heat with other policy goals. Urban planners tended to play a backseat role relative to other professions, despite the field’s importance for reducing heat-related inequity. Better understanding the role of urban planning within broader governance structures can help policymakers to best engage in heat mitigation and management.

Climate adaptation research priorities and funding: a review of US federal departments’ climate action plans

ABSTRACT National-level governments are directing and funding climate adaptation research, which is essential to informing effective and equitable adaptation practices. We sought to understand how United States (US) federal agencies prioritize, direct, and fund research related to climate adaptation and climate resilience through analyzing climate action plans created in 2021 by 13 agencies who are members of the US Global Change Research Program. We examine: (1) agencies’ stated climate adaptation research priorities; (2) how agencies address collaboration, outreach, accessibility, and usability of research outcomes; and (3) agencies’ adaptation research funding opportunities. We argue that certain research needs, justice and equity considerations, and interdisciplinary research should be emphasized to a greater degree. While adaptation research capacity and funding opportunities are expanding, they remain inadequate for the scale of research needed.

ENERGY DECARBONIZATION STRATEGIES IN RETROFITTED SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES

Legislative work on minimizing greenhouse gas emissions becomes one of the issues of the sustainable approach in the architectural and construction sector. An example of such work is Chicago’s 2022 Climate Action Plan, where nearly 70% of Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions come from urban environments. While energy consumption in new construction is declining due to tightening building codes, insufficient regulations do not limit emissions in existing buildings, especially single-family housing. The study evaluates building structures and focuses on three decarbonization strategies for retrofitted single-family homes. It interrogates and compares building electrification, envelope retrofitting and the use of renewable energy. Therefore, this study may be helpful in further prioritization of the energetic modernization of existing buildings. The case study is founded on the single-family houses built in Chicago before 1980. The paper presents possible interventions of available retrofit methods regarding grid emission factors and considers the CO2 cycle in the building’s lifetime.

Exploring the discrepancy between top-down and bottom-up approaches of fine spatio-temporal vehicular CO2 emission in an urban road network

Road transport emissions of high spatial and temporal resolution are useful for greenhouse gas emission assessment in local action plans. However, estimating these high-resolution emissions is not straightforward, and different indirect approaches exist. The main aim of this study is to examine the differences in CO2 emissions obtained with different methods within a street canyon network in Helsinki, Finland, where a mobile laboratory campaign to quantify traffic emissions has been conducted. We compared three aerodynamic resistance based top-down methods (MOST1, MOST2 and BHT) and three activity based bottom-up microscopic emission models (NGM, HBEFAv4.2 and PHEMlight). The resulted CO2 fluxes using different methods could vary a few orders of magnitude. The combination of MOST1 and NGM model leads to the smallest discrepancy (sMAPE = 16.90 %) and the highest correlation coefficient (r = 0.78) among the rest. We evaluated the discrepancies in terms of different spatial (microenvrionments, local climate zones LCZs and grid sizes) and temporal features (seasons and periods of day). Measurements taken in LCZs of open high-rise regions and microenvironments of main road tend to have larger discrepancies between the two approaches. Using a coarser grid would lead to a relatively small discrepancy and high correlation in the wintertime, yet a loss in distinctive spatial variation. The discrepancies were also elevated on winter evenings. Among all explanatory variables, relative humidity shows the strongest relative importance for the discrepancy of the two approaches, followed by LCZs. Therefore, we stress the importance of choosing a suitable model for vehicular CO2 emission calculation based on meteorological conditions and LCZs. Such model comparison made on a local scale directly supports environmental organisations and cities' climate action plans where detailed information of CO2 emissions are needed.

From Emissions Inventories to Cost Accounting: Making Business as Usual Visible for Climate Action Planning

Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are widely considered a first step toward climate mitigation and adaptation planning, but progress completing inventories at the local level is often slow. Local governments may lack motivation to carry out inventories when staffing and funding are tight. Articulating the current costs of energy consumption could motivate cash-limited local governments and help justify investments in alternatives. Calculating financial savings of alternatives could further motivate planning. Here we demonstrate an approach to calculate operating costs (and potential savings) for a town in southern New York, using measures of heat consumption and eGallons to calculate expenditures. We find that business-as-usual community energy cost amount to $50–$60 million per year in funds exported from the community, or $10,000–$12,000 per household. By replacing gasoline vehicles with electric vehicles and oil-burning furnaces with heat pumps, the community could save around $20–$33 million per year, or $4400–$7000 per household. Local government operations costs could decline by over $70,000 per year. For a small government, such reductions could have a substantial financial impact. Adding a cost assessment to a standard GHG inventory appears reasonably straightforward, and if implemented broadly, it could increase the speed and effectiveness of GHG inventories and climate action planning.

Enabling effective climate action plans at city level: Insights from India's metropolitan cities

Climate change impacts have affected cities across the world, with cities in the developing world showing higher climate risks to property, infrastructure, and individual lives. Climate Action Plans (CAP) have emerged as a key tool and policy strategy for cities globally in their fight against climate change. However, most studies on CAPs cover cities of the Global North, lacking representation of the developing world. This study conducts an exploratory case study analysis of CAPs of four metropolitan cities in India, one of the world's worst climate-exposed cities. The objective is to highlight and compare key components and characteristics of these CAPs and showcase their key strengths, unique solutions, weaknesses, and areas of improvement that may offer opportunities for strengthening existing and future city CAPs leading to effective climate policy and urban governance at the national and global level. Characteristics of the CAPs are discussed under the purview of global best practices and frameworks, such as C40 cities. Analysis shows that city CAPs in India are at a nascent stage owing to the absence of climate policies resulting in experimentation and implementation, suiting stakeholder and local government needs.