Potential of Cities in Tackling Climate Change Still Largely Untapped, UN Says

Only 27% of national policy plans to tackle climate change have a strong focus on urban priorities, despite the potential of cities to help achieve climate targets.

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National policy plans to drive sustainability and emissions reduction must put greater emphasis on urban priorities and climate action ahead of next year’s COP30, a new UN study has warned.

The report, published Wednesday by UN-Habitat, UNDP, and the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU.Resilience), analyzed the climate commitments of 194 countries party to the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement that set out a framework for limiting global warming to below 1.5C or “well below 2C” above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. 

Under the Agreement, each signatory country submits its own plan for emissions reductions, known as a Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the overall targets. They are required to update them every five years, with the next revision due at COP30 in late 2025.

Using approximately 200 indicators, researchers examined the latest NDCs of all 194 countries submitted in June 2023 and categorized them into three broad clusters based on the level of urban elements: strong, moderate, and low or no urban content.

Home to 56% of the global population, cities are responsible for 70% of global primary energy consumption and 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making them key players to achieving the Paris Agreement targets. And yet, the study found that only 27% of NDCs – mostly from low- and middle-income countries including China, Colombia, Morocco, India, South Africa, and Turkey – had a strong focus, meaning urban sectors were featured prominently and identified as a priority. Despite the low proportion, this still represented a 14% increase compared to 2016.

39% had moderate levels of urban content and the remaining 35% had low to no mention, including high-income and highly urbanized countries and regions such as Canada, Japan, the European Union, and the United States, along with Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

The results underscore the missed opportunity of many countries to target urban centers in their efforts to achieve decarbonization targets. Cities are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat, and sea level rise. Low-income and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected as they possess weak adaptive capacities to react to these climate changes.

Only through investments in robust and effective adaptation and mitigation strategies can cities hope to withstand these impacts. And yet, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6), US$384 billion has so far been spent on climate action in urban areas, representing just 10% of what is necessary to build low-carbon and climate-resilient cities.

“The science is clear,” said Michal Mlynár, Acting Executive Director of UN-Habitat. “Current urbanization processes drive greenhouse gas emissions and leave urban infrastructure and citizens extremely vulnerable to climate change. Yet, we can increasingly see that the right policy and planning decisions can make cities and communities resilient, and that carbon neutral urban development is possible. The NDCs must provide the framework for accelerated urban climate action.”

Water-related hazards were the most frequently mentioned urban climate hazards in the NDCs analyzed. These include floods, droughts, sea level rise, and storm events. Heat is also increasingly affecting urban centers as temperatures rise, especially during the summer months. A recent study found that climate change added 26 days of excess extreme heat in 2023.

Urbanization only worsens the issue. As more people move into cities, they replace natural vegetation and soil with buildings, roads, and other impervious surfaces that absorb and re-emit more heat, creating a so-called urban heat island effect. 

Stress on human bodies caused by heat prevents normal daily activities and our ability to cool down properly. Areas that generally have more humidity can also put lives at risk. Sweat helps our bodies cool off, but humidity changes the way sweat evaporates from the body. Not being able to cool down puts people’s health at risk, and can lead to increased cardiovascular and respiratory complications, dehydration, heatstroke, higher blood pressure, and sleep deprivation.

More on the topic: How Cities Around the World Are Tackling the Urban Heat Crisis

With COP30 less than a year away, the UN is urging countries to step up their efforts.

 “As countries embark on developing the third generation of NDCs, it is crucial to ensure urban climate solutions comprise a key place in all climate strategies. Although there is a rising emphasis on cities in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, we can do more,” said Marcos Neto, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau of Policy and Programme Support.