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Urban transformative potential in a changing climate

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 754–756 (2018)Cite this article

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The SDGs and CitiesIPCC offer an unprecedented opportunity for urban transformation, but bold, integrated action to address the constraints imposed by economic, cultural and political dynamics is needed. We move beyond a narrow, technocentric view and identify five key knowledge pathways to catalyse urban transformation.

While the topic of urban responses to climate change has been on the research agenda for the past two decades1, it has only slowly made its way onto the global stage, and is now at a critical juncture. Now proven to be important agents of change globally, cities occupy a central role in societal responses to climate change. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for climate action (13) and inclusive urban resilience (11), and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction with its call to “Build Back Better”, present a radical departure from business as usual. By recognizing the root drivers of climate risk in unequal and unsustainable development, these initiatives and processes offer an opportunity for action to address deep-rooted development challenges.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, Golden, Colorado, USA

    Patricia Romero-Lankao

  2. Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Harriet Bulkeley & Laura Tozer

  3. Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK

    Mark Pelling

  4. Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Sarah Burch

  5. Department of Politics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    David J. Gordon

  6. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Joyeeta Gupta

  7. Political Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Craig Johnson

  8. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Priya Kurian & Debashish Munshi

  9. Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Emma Lecavalier

  10. Mistra Urban Futures, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    David Simon

  11. Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK

    David Simon

  12. Department of Environmental & Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Gina Ziervogel

Authors
  1. Patricia Romero-Lankao
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  2. Harriet Bulkeley
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  3. Mark Pelling
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  4. Sarah Burch
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  5. David J. Gordon
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  6. Joyeeta Gupta
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  7. Craig Johnson
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  8. Priya Kurian
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  9. Emma Lecavalier
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  10. David Simon
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  11. Laura Tozer
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  12. Gina Ziervogel
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  13. Debashish Munshi
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Correspondence to Patricia Romero-Lankao.

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Romero-Lankao, P., Bulkeley, H., Pelling, M. et al. Urban transformative potential in a changing climate. Nature Clim Change 8, 754–756 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0264-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0264-0

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