Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

City transformations in a 1.5 °C warmer world

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 177–181 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Meeting the ambitions of the Paris Agreement will require rapid and massive decarbonization of cities, as well as adaptation. Capacity and requirement differs across cities, with challenges and opportunities for transformational action in both the Global North and South.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Estimated per-capita CO2e by Global North and Global South city grouping.
Fig. 2: Distribution of C40 and UCCRN cities and annual temperature changes for ice-free land areas in a 1.5 °C warmer world.

References

  1. Patterson, L. J. et al. Current Opinion Environ. Sustain. 31, 1–9 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Xue, J., Walnum, H. J., Aall, C. & Næss, P. Sustainability 9, 20 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Amundsen, H., Hovelsrud, G. K., Aall, C., Karlsson, M. & Westskog, H. Current Opinion Environ. Sustain. 31, 23–29 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Solecki, W., Pelling, M. & Garschagen, M. Ecol. Soc. 22, 38 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. World Population Prospects (Population Division, United Nations, 2015).

  6. Pelling, M. et al. Current Opinion Environ. Sustain. 31, 1–15 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Déque, M. et al. Clim. Services 7, 87–95 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Birkmann., J., Welle, T., Solecki, W., Lwasa, S. & Garschagen, M. Nature 537, 605–608 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. MiamiForever (2018); http://go.nature.com/2BhHL3A

  10. Climate Action: Mayor, Comptroller, Trustees Announce First-In-The-Nation Goal to Divest From Fossil Fuels. NYC (10 January 2018).

  11. Simoes, E. et al. Regional Environ. Change 17, 1739–1750 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Shared Mobility: Innovation for Liveable Cities (OECD, ITF, 2016).

  13. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015).

  14. Second Assessment of Research on Climate Change in Cities (eds Rosenzweig, C. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018).

  15. Grandin, J., Haarstad, H., Kjaeras, K. & Bouzarovski, S. Current Opinion Environ. Sustain 31, 16–22 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. World Cities Report 2016 (United Nations, 2016).

  17. Cities Community-Wide Emissions (Carbon Disclosure Project, 2017); http://go.nature.com/2EDfoyI

  18. Urban Climate Change Resea rch Network (accessed 29 January 2017); http://go.nature.com/2sv5yKe

  19. Mitchell, D. et al. Geosci. Model Dev 10, 571–583 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Institute for Sustainable Cities — Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, USA

    William Solecki

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

    Cynthia Rosenzweig

  3. Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Change, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand

    Shobhakar Dhakal

  4. Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit, Ethekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa

    Debra Roberts

  5. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Debra Roberts

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

    Aliyu Salisu Barau

  7. C40, New York, USA

    Seth Schultz

  8. Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    Diana Ürge-Vorsatz

Authors
  1. William Solecki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cynthia Rosenzweig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shobhakar Dhakal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Debra Roberts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Aliyu Salisu Barau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Seth Schultz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William Solecki.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Solecki, W., Rosenzweig, C., Dhakal, S. et al. City transformations in a 1.5 °C warmer world. Nature Clim Change 8, 177–181 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0101-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0101-5

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing