Urban Climate Change Mitigation Research Articles

The Role of Science in Advising the Decision Making Process: A Pathway for Building Effective Climate Change Mitigation Policies in Mexico at the Local Level.

This study examines a pathway for building urban climate change mitigation policies by presenting a multi-dimensional and transdisciplinary approach in which technical, economic, environmental, social, and political dimensions interact. Now, more than ever, the gap between science and policymaking needs to be bridged; this will enable judicious choices to be made in regarding energy and climate change mitigation strategies, leading to positive social impacts, in particular for the populations at-risk at the local level. Through a case study in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, we propose a multidimensional and transdisciplinary approach with the role of scientist as policy advisers to improve the role of science in decision-making on mitigation policies at the local level in Mexico.

Making cities resilient to climate change: identifying “win–win” interventions

ABSTRACTUrbanisation is truly a global phenomenon. Starting at 39% in 1980, the urbanisation level rose to 52% in 2011. Ongoing rapid urbanisation has led to increase in urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Urban climate change risks have also increased with increase in climate-induced extreme weather events and more low-income urban dwellers living in climate sensitive locations. Despite increased emissions, including GHGs and heightened climate change vulnerability, climate mitigation and adaptation actions are rare in the cities of developing countries. Cities are overwhelmed with worsening congestion, air pollution, crime, waste management, and unemployment problems. Lack of resources and capacity constraints are other factors that discourage cities from embarking on climate change mitigation and adaptation pathways. Given the multitude of problems faced, there is simply no appetite for stand-alone urban climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and programmes. Urban mitigation and adaptation goals will have to be achieved as co-benefits of interventions targeted at solving pressing urban problems and challenges. The paper identifies administratively simple urban interventions that can help cities solve some of their pressing service delivery and urban environmental problems, while simultaneously mitigating rising urban GHG emissions and vulnerability to climate change.

Multilevel governance and urban climate change mitigation

Cities worldwide have taken the lead in addressing climate change; however, this does not tell the full story in understanding the puzzle of local climate action. Rather than in isolation, city actions occur in the context of a complex of other government arrangements. Whereas the majority of the literature concerning subnational responses to climate change in the US is addressed in the literatures of federalism and diffusion, we offer an explanation of climate actions through a multilevel governance approach. Multilevel governance allows us to consider the horizontal city-to-city influences on climate action while also considering the vertical influences of state-to-local action. We conduct a large quantitative study of climate actions in all US cities with populations greater than 50,000 people. We find that cities' and states' climate action efforts are complementary, rather than attenuating; however, we note that horizontal influences are generally stronger than vertical influences in motivating climate action at the local level. We conclude that, in spite of the potential for an increased role of federal and state governments in climate action in the United States, city-to-city networks are likely to remain important in motivating cities to mitigate climate change.

Protecting Sydney's Peri‐Urban Agriculture: Moving beyond a Housing/Farming Dichotomy

AbstractIn Australia, as in other Western countries, peri‐urban farmland is increasingly being considered a public good, contributing to urban sustainability and climate change mitigation. To retain local food production, advocates have called for the implementation of farmland protection policies that restrict urban development, such as exclusion zoning. Many such policies have been abandoned due to protests, often from the very people the policies are ostensibly intended to protect – farmers. Examining the failure of Sydney's latest ‘green zones’ through a political ecology lens, this paper challenges the prevailing narrative that these protests indicate a lack of community support for the ideal of farmland protection. The failure of the green zones was one of political process, specifically the lack of consultation with Sydney's culturally and linguistically diverse small‐scale farmers, rather than community rejection of the principle of protection. Interview responses from farmers suggest that a bottom‐up approach to policy‐making would have yielded alternative and more successful approaches to maintaining farming on the fringe. This paper concludes that ensuring small‐scale farmers have access to and agency in the environmental decision‐making process generates options for farmland protection policy that move beyond a housing‐versus‐farming dichotomy.

Climate change response in Europe: what’s the reality? Analysis of adaptation and mitigation plans from 200 urban areas in 11 countries

Urban areas are pivotal to global adaptation and mitigation efforts. But how do cities actually perform in terms of climate change response? This study sheds light on the state of urban climate change adaptation and mitigation planning across Europe. Europe is an excellent test case given its advanced environmental policies and high urbanization. We performed a detailed analysis of 200 large and medium-sized cities across 11 European countries and analysed the cities’ climate change adaptation and mitigation plans. We investigate the regional distribution of plans, adaptation and mitigation foci and the extent to which planned greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions contribute to national and international climate objectives. To our knowledge, it is the first study of its kind as it does not rely on self-assessment (questionnaires or social surveys). Our results show that 35 % of European cities studied have no dedicated mitigation plan and 72 % have no adaptation plan. No city has an adaptation plan without a mitigation plan. One quarter of the cities have both an adaptation and a mitigation plan and set quantitative GHG reduction targets, but those vary extensively in scope and ambition. Furthermore, we show that if the planned actions within cities are nationally representative the 11 countries investigated would achieve a 37 % reduction in GHG emissions by 2050, translating into a 27 % reduction in GHG emissions for the EU as a whole. However, the actions would often be insufficient to reach national targets and fall short of the 80 % reduction in GHG emissions recommended to avoid global mean temperature rising by 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Urban Climate Change Mitigation in Europe: Looking at and beyond the Role of Population Density

As climate change mitigation becomes pervasive on all spatial scales, mitigation options related to urban spatial planning and behavioral change become increasingly important. Because transport energy consumption seems to scale inversely with population density, increased attention focuses on the role of urban form. This study specifically analyzes the importance of population density for the reduction of urban greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. For this, drivers of both carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport (for 134 cities) and total urban greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq emissions) of 62 cities across Europe are investigated. Results indicate that population density is not, per se, a strong determinant of greenhouse gas emissions in European cities. Crucially, the spatial scale of the analysis matters and national influences modulate CO2eq emissions in the analyzed urban areas. Results show that greenhouse gas emissions of European urbanites increase significantly with decreasing household sizes and increasing personal wealth. Although the results are bound by data quality, it is assumed that the relative similarity of European cities is also leading to a lesser degree of importance of population density with respect to climate change mitigation. The results further encourage more thorough analyses of the role of household size and personal wealth for effective mitigation of climate change, additional spatially explicit econometric studies, and detailed, city-specific causal models of urban areas.

The Financial Viability of Solar Photovoltaic Canopies as Urban Climate Change Mitigation: An Analysis of the Potential Utilization of Public Space in Boston, Massachusetts

We model the electrical power generation potential, calculate the associated avoided emissions and conduct an economic valuation of a scenario of large scale photovoltaic canopy implementation in metro Boston, Massachusetts on publicly managed parking real-estate operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. The results of this work demonstrate that 102.4 MWh of electricity may be generated by such a program which is equal to nearly 13.8% of total electricity demand in the state. Annual CO2, NO and SO2 emissions avoided in this scenario amounts to 53.7 tonnes of CO2, 46.5 kg of NO, and 107.1 kg of SO2. Despite the substantial amount of power production potential we find that such a scenario is not economically viable under current market conditions and using conventional financing mechanisms with a net present value of -1.4 Billion U.S. dollars.

Generalized residential building typology for urban climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies: The case of Hungary

Climate change has a dual implication on the built environment: on one hand human settlements and buildings are vulnerable to the effects of changing climate and on the other hand the building sector has a significant climate change mitigation potential. The relevant sustainable development and building policies as well as the building design, construction and maintenance strategies should jointly respond both to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.What should city developers focus on in order to plan a sustainable and safe city in a changing climate? This paper provides answers to this question, presenting a bottom-up methodology based on a generalized building typology of the residential building stock in order to estimate the mitigation potential and vulnerability of the residential sector.During the research, a case study has been implemented in Hungary to assess the structural impacts and vulnerability on the roof, particularly with respect to the wind load and to estimate the potential decrease of CO2 emission through refurbishment. Through the case study the paper highlights the most problematic areas of the city both from vulnerability and mitigation point of view where the attention of the city developers should be turned.

Remote sensing science to inform urban climate change mitigation strategies

Remote sensing offers unique perspectives to study the relationship between urban systems and climate change because it provides spatially explicit and synoptic views of the landscape that are available at multiple grains, extents, and over time. While remote sensing has made significant advances in the study of urban areas, especially urban heat island and urban land change, there are myriad unanswered science and policy questions to which remote sensing science could contribute. Here we identify several key opportunities for remote sensing science to increase our understanding of the relationships between urban systems and climate change.

Response to Wiedmann

Summary This commentary is prompted by Thomas Wiedmann's “Defining (Urban) Producer and Consumer Sinks” published in this issue. In his article, Wiedmann presents a new framework for categorizing carbon sinks by borrowing practices from carbon emissions accounting and, essentially, proposing a “carbon sink footprint” model for urban inventories. While this is a valuable new concept, we argue that it is difficult to apply accurately given current knowledge and practices in urban life cycle assessment. Instead, a direct versus embodied classification based on where the sequestration service exists, not where the sink is located, is more useful from the perspective of municipal control and influence over creating and managing carbon sinks. This is ultimately important for the development of urban climate change mitigation measures.