Cities and Climate Change: Policy Directions - Global Report on Human Settlements

The effects of urbanization and climate change are converging in dangerous ways that seriously threaten the world’s environmental, economic and social stability. Cities and Climate Change: Global Report on Human Settlements 2011 seeks to improve knowledge, among governments and all those interested in urban development and in climate change, on the contribution of cities to climate change, the impacts of climate change on cities, and how cities are mitigating and adapting to climate change. More importantly, the Report identifies promising mitigation and adaptation measures that are supportive of more sustainable and resilient urban development paths.

The Report argues that local action is indispensable for the realization of national climate change commitments agreed through international negotiations. Yet most of the mechanisms within the international climate change framework are addressed primarily to national governments and do not indicate a clear process by which local governments, stakeholders and actors may participate. Despite these challenges, the current multilevel climate change framework does offer opportunities for local action at the city level. The crux of the challenge is that actors at all levels need to move within short time frames to guarantee long-term and wide-ranging global interests, which can seem remote and unpredictable at best.