Bridging the scale between the local particular and the global universal in climate change assessments of cities

Author

• Felix CREUTZIG
• Timon MCPHEARSON
• Ronita BARDHAN
• Camille BELMIN
• Winston T. L. CHOW, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
• Matthias GARSCHAGEN
• Angel HSU
• Şiir KILKIŞ
• Sheikh Tawhidul ISLAM
• Nikola MILOJEVIC-DUPONT
• Minal PATHAK
• Rafael H. M. PEREIRA
• Pourya SALEHI
• Diana ÜRGE-VORSATZ

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

5-2025

Abstract

Identifying gaps in urban climate change assessment is crucial for developing the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on cities. To bridge the gap between the understanding of local interventions and global climate goals, we call for the strengthening of assessment tools such as urban typologies, case study synthesis and big geospatial data studies. We sort research gaps into five overarching themes: (1) urban form, (2) data and artificial intelligence, (3) policies and governance, (4) system transformation and (5) potentials, costs and losses. Using these methods for categorizing and analyzing cities based on shared characteristics will enable the tailoring and scaling of local climate solutions to global contexts.

Discipline

Environmental Sciences | Urban Studies and Planning

Publication

Nature Cities

Volume

2

Issue

5

First Page

369

Last Page

378

Identifier

10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w

Publisher

Nature Research

Citation

CREUTZIG, Felix; MCPHEARSON, Timon; BARDHAN, Ronita; BELMIN, Camille; CHOW, Winston T. L.; GARSCHAGEN, Matthias; HSU, Angel; KILKIŞ, Şiir; ISLAM, Sheikh Tawhidul; MILOJEVIC-DUPONT, Nikola; PATHAK, Minal; PEREIRA, Rafael H. M.; SALEHI, Pourya; and ÜRGE-VORSATZ, Diana. Bridging the scale between the local particular and the global universal in climate change assessments of cities. (2025). Nature Cities. 2, (5), 369-378.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/650

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w