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Locking in positive climate responses in cities

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 174–177 (2018)Cite this article

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Well-intended climate actions are confounding each other. Cities must take a strategic and integrated approach to lock into a climate-resilient and low-emission future.

Cities are home to much of the world’s population and are key actors in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Many have stepped forward to show climate leadership, but it is not clear whether urban strategies for adaptation constrain or facilitate mitigation, and vice versa. Efforts to understand, develop and implement adaptation and mitigation strategies typically operate in silos, with limited interaction. Despite the increased prevalence and ambition of city-level mitigation and adaptation plans, there are few efforts aiming at creating synergies or avoiding trade-offs between them.

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Fig. 1: Key interactions between urban mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Fig. 2: Infrastructural, institutional and behavioural lock-in mechanisms for key mitigation strategies.
Fig. 3: Infrastructural, institutional and behavioural lock-in mechanisms for key adaptation strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Reppucci for research support.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    Diana Ürge-Vorsatz

  2. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA

    Cynthia Rosenzweig

  3. School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom

    Richard J. Dawson

  4. Department of Urban and Environmental Studies, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico

    Roberto Sanchez Rodriguez

  5. Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Xuemei Bai

  6. Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bayero University Kano, Kano, Nigeria

    Aliyu Salisu Barau

  7. Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT, USA

    Karen C. Seto

  8. School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, Thailand

    Shobhakar Dhakal

Authors
  1. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz
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  2. Cynthia Rosenzweig
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  3. Richard J. Dawson
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  4. Roberto Sanchez Rodriguez
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  5. Xuemei Bai
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  6. Aliyu Salisu Barau
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  7. Karen C. Seto
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  8. Shobhakar Dhakal
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Correspondence to Diana Ürge-Vorsatz.

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Ürge-Vorsatz, D., Rosenzweig, C., Dawson, R.J. et al. Locking in positive climate responses in cities. Nature Clim Change 8, 174–177 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0100-6

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