How do urban characteristics affect climate change mitigation policies?

Urban policy plays an important role in urbanization and urban sprawl, which in turn affect changes in CO2 emissions from urban areas. However, urban planning policies that consider climate change mitigation have not been widely adopted, despite the issue's importance. To promote the consideration of climate change policies in urban planning, it is useful to identify the key determinants of effective climate change mitigation for policy makers. The objective of this study is therefore to identify the determining factors that affect changes in urban CO2 emissions based on city type using a dataset of metropolitan areas. We obtained data on 276 cities in 26 countries for the years 2000, 2005, and 2008. We divided the data into five regional groups and four clusters to control for the characteristics of metropolitan areas. The dataset includes urban CO2 emissions, GDP, and population. Three variables related to urban characteristics are subjected to determinants analysis using an econometric approach. The results show that the determinants of changes in urban CO2 emissions differ by city type and region. These results contribute to a better understanding of urban policies that can improve the effects of these driving factors by considering the characteristics of each city type.