Cities in transition: transforming urban centers from hotbeds of GHG emissions and vulnerability to seedbeds of sustainability and resilience: Introduction and Editorial overview

Urban centres of different sizes – especially cities – play a crucial role in managing global carbon emissions and reducing vulnerability to climate change. This overview paper draws on the papers in this issue (as well as a wider array of literature) to provide an analytical review of the carbon and climate relevance of urbanization and of some of the interactions between urbanization and global environmental change. The authors’ insights are used to inform a more general set of reflections on the nature of urban and environmental change, and the linkages between the two. Three over-arching themes are identified: the centrality of vulnerability and resilience as concepts shaping urban responses to climate change; the growing recognition of the role of specific governance mechanisms and systems at different scales in shaping the design and implementation of responses; and the particularities, cross-cutting issues and connections between cities from different regions (e.g., Europe, East Africa) in addressing this challenge. Notwithstanding the rapidly growing volume of information on this area of research, the challenge will be to develop frameworks to understand and effectively respond to the complex interactions between urban development, the carbon cycle and the climate system, and to turn the hazards resulting from human pressures on the environment into sources of opportunities and innovations aimed at building more resilient and sustainable cities.

► Cities are seedbeds of mitigation and adaptation responses. ► Components of urbanization (e.g., scale, size, form) have key climate and carbon implications. ► Vulnerability and resilience are central to understand urban climate policies. ► Governance mechanisms and systems shape the design and implementation of policies.