Cities and climate change an urgent agenda

This report, Cities and Climate Change: An Urgent Agenda, focuses on three broad issues pertaining to
cities and climate change. How cities contribute to and are affected by climate change. How policy
makers can use cities to change human behavior and improve technology related to climate change. How
cities should use climate change as an opportunity to raise their profile, reinforce sensible policies, and
move toward a more sustainable community and planet.
Cities are often seen as contributing to environmental degradation and represent immense ecological
burdens. However, cities can also be models of environmental efficiency, because increased density
and better management reduce the cost of service delivery, promote innovation, and enable prosperity
through economic development. Sustainable cities are the best option to provide a quality of life while
reducing net pollution such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At the political level, cities are credible laboratories of social change with sufficient scale to bring about meaningful actions. At the economic level, the world’s 50 largest cities alone have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $9.6 trillion, more than all of China, and second only to the entire U.S. economy. Cities offer dynamism, scale, stronger linkages, and a greater sense of urgency among residents and their local leaders.
Cities have the unique ability to respond to a global issue, such as climate change at a local, more tangible level. They usually offer more immediate and effective communication between the public and decision makers than other groups can. Cobenefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation are largest in cities.

source:

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/9dd0caa3-4a61-520e-8579-724d31f8a713