How Do Global Cities Mitigate Climate Change?

The cities case-study research is examining cities which are both politically and environmentally significant. This entails examining cities which are demonstrating leadership on the issue of climate change and have influence in other spheres of climate change governance, as well as a focus on large cities with significant emissions of greenhouses gases. Case-studies have been selected from the top 100 global cities, taking account of the political context (e.g. inside or outside Kyoto, membership of transnational networks) and evidence included in the Tyndall database. The case-study cities are: London; Los Angeles; Mexico City; and Melbourne.

Further cities may be added through student projects over the remaining eighteen months of the project.

Post-2012 issues of importance to the cities sector include:

1. The presence/absence of targets and timetables
2. The membership of different nation-states in any future international agreement
3. The nature/rules of emissions trading schemes at regional, national and international scales and the implications for whether cities can be involved
4. The ways in which offsetting is counted in the regime and how this shapes its legitimacy as a climate mitigation measure
5. Issues concerning monitoring/verification of emissions reduction and the possible standardisation of such processes

In seeking to examine the role of cities in responding to these international dynamics it is important to understand how climate change is being addressed within cities, the roles of different public and private actors in shaping city responses to climate change, and the barriers and opportunities that are encountered in addressing climate change. Case-study research has therefore involved interviews with a range of different organisations – government, corporate, community, international networks – who are involved in shaping climate change policy and action within the city.