Many roads to Paris: Explaining urban climate action in 885 European cities

2022 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 102439
Author(s):  
Klaus Eisenack ◽  
Matteo Roggero
Keyword(s):  
Urban Climate ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Climate Action

scholarly journals Representing ‘Place’: City Climate Commissions and the Institutionalisation of Experimental Governance in Edinburgh

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Creasy ◽  
Matthew Lane ◽  
Alice Owen ◽  
Candice Howarth ◽  
Dan Van der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Urban Futures ◽  
Key Industries ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

Against the backdrop of increasingly fragmented and poly-centric urban climate governance, this article examines the establishment of city climate ‘commissions’ as an experimental means of addressing the challenge of climate change at the city-scale. In doing so it addresses the question: What constitutes diversity in voices and perspectives when trying to represent the city as a place for climate action? To answer this question, the article presents an analysis of the Edinburgh Climate Commission’s establishment, drawing on participatory ethnographic research carried out by a researcher embedded within the project team. The account of how this new mode of urban governance was both conceptualised and then put into practice offers a new institutional angle to the literature on urban ‘experimentation.’ Through our reflective analysis we argue that aspirations to ensure pre-defined ‘key’ industries (high carbon emitters) are accounted for in commissioner recruitment, and an over-emphasis on capturing discernible ‘impacts’ in the short term (by involving organisations already pro-active in sustainable development) hindered an opportunity to embrace new perspectives on urban futures and harness the innovative potential of cities to engage with the multifaceted nature of the climate challenge. Furthermore, new insight into the relationship between local authorities and other ‘place-based’ agents of change opens up important questions regarding how to balance the attainment of legitimacy within the political status quo, and the prospect of a new radical politics for urban transformation.

scholarly journals Urban Climate Policy and Action through a Health Lens—An Untapped Opportunity

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (23) ◽  
pp. 12516
Author(s):  
Audrey de Nazelle ◽  
Charlotte J. Roscoe ◽  
Aina Roca-Barcelό ◽  
Giselle Sebag ◽  
Gudrun Weinmayr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
International Society ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Environmental Epidemiology ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Funding Opportunities

Motivated by a growing recognition of the climate emergency, reflected in the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), we outline untapped opportunities to improve health through ambitious climate actions in cities. Health is a primary reason for climate action yet is rarely integrated in urban climate plans as a policy goal. This is a missed opportunity to create sustainable alliances across sectors and groups, to engage a broad set of stakeholders, and to develop structural health promotion. In this statement, we first briefly review the literature on health co-benefits of urban climate change strategies and make the case for health-promoting climate action; we then describe barriers to integrating health in climate action. We found that the evidence-base is often insufficiently policy-relevant to be impactful. Research rarely integrates the complexity of real-world systems, including multiple and dynamic impacts of strategies, and consideration of how decision-making processes contend with competing interests and short-term electoral cycles. Due to siloed-thinking and restrictive funding opportunities, research often falls short of the type of evidence that would be most useful for decision-making, and research outputs can be cryptic to decision makers. As a way forward, we urge researchers and stakeholders to engage in co-production and systems thinking approaches. Partnering across sectors and disciplines is urgently needed so pathways to climate change mitigation and adaptation fully embrace their health-promoting potential and engage society towards the huge transformations needed. This commentary is endorsed by the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) and the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) and accompanies a sister statement oriented towards stakeholders (published on the societies’ websites).

scholarly journals Urban climate in Central European cities and global climate change

2018 ◽  
Vol 51-52 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Bokwa ◽  
Petr Dobrovolný ◽  
Tamás Gál ◽  
Jan Geletič ◽  
Ágnes Gulyás ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Complex Data ◽  
Central European ◽  
European Cities ◽  
The Impact

Urban areas are among those most endangered with the potential global climate changes. The studies concerning the impact of global changes on local climate of cities are of a high significance for the urban inhabitants' health and wellbeing. This paper is the final report of a project (Urban climate in Central European cities and global climate change) with the aim to raise the public awareness on those issues in five Central European cities: Szeged (Hungary), Brno (Czech Republic), Bratislava (Slovakia), Kraków (Poland) and Vienna (Austria). Within the project, complex data concerning local geomorphological features, land use and long-term climatological data were used to perform the climate modelling analyses using the model MUKLIMO_3 provided by the German Weather Service (DWD).

scholarly journals A Research and Innovation Agenda for Zero-Emission European Cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Fuso Nerini ◽  
Adriaan Slob ◽  
Rebecka Ericsdotter Engström ◽  
Evelina Trutnevyte
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Innovative Technology ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
Governance Innovation

The Paris Agreement and SDG13 on Climate Action require a global drop in Green House Gases (GHG) emissions to stay within a “well below 2 degrees” climate change trajectory. Cities will play a key role in achieving this, being responsible for 60 to 80% of the global GHG emissions depending on the estimate. This paper describes how Research and Innovation (R&I) can play a key role in decarbonizing European cities, and the role that research and education institutions can play in that regard. The paper highlights critical R&I actions in cities based on three pillars: (1) innovative technology and integration, (2) governance innovation, and (3) social innovation. Further, the research needed to harmonize climate mitigation and adaptation in cities are investigated.

scholarly journals Heat load assessment in Central European cities using an urban climate model and observational monitoring data

2019 ◽  
Vol 201 ◽  
pp. 53-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Bokwa ◽  
Jan Geletič ◽  
Michal Lehnert ◽  
Maja Žuvela-Aloise ◽  
Brigitta Hollósi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Load ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Monitoring Data ◽  
Central European ◽  
European Cities

scholarly journals Evaluating the Urban Canopy Scheme TERRA_URB in the COSMO Model for Selected European Cities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Garbero ◽  
Massimo Milelli ◽  
Francesca Bassani ◽  
Edoardo Bucchignani ◽  
Paola Mercogliano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Temperature ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Canopy ◽  
Anthropogenic Heat ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Cosmo Model ◽  
Anthropogenic Heat Flux

<p>Nowadays, cities are the preferred location for more than half of the human population and the places where major human-perceived climate change impacts occur. In an increasingly urbanized world, it is essential to represent such areas adequately in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, not only to correctly forecast air temperature, but also the human heat stress and the micro-climate phenomena induced by the cities. Among them, the best known is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which refers to the significantly higher temperatures experienced by a metropolitan area than its rural surroundings. Currently, the COSMO model employs a zero-order urban description, which is unable to correctly reproduce the UHI effect: cities are simply represented as natural lands with increased surface roughness length and reduced vegetation cover. However, the reproduction of the urban climate features in NWP and regional climate models is possible with the use of the so-called urban canopy models, that are able to parameterize the interaction between the urbanized surface and the overlying atmosphere. In this context, a new bulk parameterization scheme, TERRA_URB (TU), has been developed within the COSMO Consortium. TU offers an intrinsic representation of urban physics: the effect of buildings, streets and other man-made layers on the surface-atmosphere interaction is described by parameterizing the impervious water balance, translating the 3D urban-canopy parameters into bulk parameters with the Semi-empirical Urban canopy parameterization (SURY) and using the externally calculated anthropogenic heat flux as additional heat source. In this work, we present high-resolution simulations with the TU scheme, for different European cities, Turin, Naples and Moscow. An in-depth evaluation and verification of the performances of the recent COSMO version with TU scheme and new implemented physical parameterizations, such the ICON-like surface-layer turbulence scheme and the new formulation of the surface temperature, have been carried out. The validation concerned the 2-meter temperature and was performed for 1- or 2-week selected periods over the 3 European cities characterized by different environment and climate, namely the Moscow megacity in Russia and Turin and Naples in Italy. Even if the three domains are morphologically different, the results follow a common behavior. In particular, the activation of TERRA_URB provides a substantial improvement in capturing the UHI intensity and improving air temperature forecasts in urban areas. Potential benefits in the model performance also arise from a new turbulence scheme and the representation of skin-layer temperature (for vegetation). Our model framework provides promising perspectives for enhancing urban climate modelling, although further investigations are needed.</p>

scholarly journals Urban Governance and Decision-making under Climate Change: a Critical Review of Frameworks, Methods and Tools from the Perspectives of Ecological Economics and Sustainability Science

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-195
Author(s):  
Vitaliy Soloviy ◽  
Ion Dubovich
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Ecological Economics ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Minimum Criteria ◽  
Urban Climate Governance

Over the past 10-15 years, cities have emerged as clear leaders in global climate action. The wealth of frameworks, methods and tools aimed to support urban climate governance and decision-making have created a picture of progress on the topic, however, practical examples of success are limited to a limited group of forerunners. This research aims to address the gap between needs, theory and practice, by providing a critical review of the current developments from the lenses of sustainability science and ecological economics. Based on their integration, we developed ten minimum criteria for development and selection of actionable means: (1) legitimacy, salience and credibility; (2) consideration of social-ecological-economic dynamics; (3) critical pluralism; (4) inclusivity; (5) equality; (6) nexus; (7) transparency; (8) usability; (9) VUCA-fit; 10) transformative potential. The minimum criteria were used to assess 10 selected frameworks, 13 methods and 9 tools, providing decision-makers initial guidelines for making better choices. The analysis revealed that while comprehensive urban climate governance frameworks already exist, sophistication and usability of decision-support methods and tools require further work, while common reliance on simple means limits available opportunities. Thus, it is important to make multi-criteria, multi-objective, adaptive and robust approaches better accessible to urban decision-makers beyond the expert circles to support more effective climate action, while the suggested minimum criteria can be used to provide initial guidelines for such developments.

scholarly journals Exploring the Role of Outdoor Recreation to Contribute to Urban Climate Resilience

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Beery
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Outdoor Recreation ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Parks And Recreation ◽  
Climate Resilience ◽  
Climate Action

Climate resilience is an important mix of climate mitigation and climate adaptation designed to minimize current and future disruption while promoting opportunity. Given the importance of the regional and local arena for consideration of impacts of climate change trends and needs for climate action, climate resilience in one community, Duluth, Minnesota, is considered. At the core of this project is the climate resilience question: what can we currently be doing in our communities to prepare for projected climate change while simultaneously improving life for current residents and visitors? Given the growing importance of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism in Duluth, the role this sector may be able to play in climate resilience is considered. Using action research methodology, the research process of adjusting, presenting, and conducting follow-up from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Adaptation for Coastal Communities workshop is presented. The study takes a unique look at one workshop outcome, a Duluth Parks and Recreation planning tool. Specifically, a resilience checklist is presented as a useful sample outcome of the overall process. Beyond the study community, the role of outdoor recreation to serve climate resilience is explored and affirmed.

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