Advancing Climate Ambition: How City-Scale Actions Can Contribute to Global Climate Goals

This research paper quantifies the potential for urban areas to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that city-scale actions in sectors like urban planning and public transport can help close the gap toward a 2°C global temperature target.

• Urban actions have the potential to significantly lower global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with estimated reductions of 3.7 Gt CO2e by 2030 and 8.0 Gt CO2e by 2050 relative to a reference scenario. The most substantial reductions are expected from transitioning to efficient public transport for personal urban mobility and implementing deep improvements in residential building energy efficiency.
• Cities are critical actors in climate mitigation because they possess unique influence over policy levers such as public transportation and urban planning. These levers allow cities to reduce GHG emissions, prevent further carbon lock-in, and lower the costs associated with future abatement.
• Because many city-level actions are not currently included in national pledges, pursuing these reductions could assist nations in increasing the ambition of their existing pledges or deepening new commitments. Achieving this potential would require swift action from cities, national policy support, and new financing sources.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2014). Advancing Climate Ambition: How City-Scale Actions Can Contribute to Global Climate Goals. https://www.sei.org/publications/advancing-climate-ambition-how-city-scale-actions-can-contribute-to-global-climate-goals/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Advancing Climate Ambition: How City-Scale Actions Can Contribute to Global Climate Goals. 2014. https://www.sei.org/publications/advancing-climate-ambition-how-city-scale-actions-can-contribute-to-global-climate-goals/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Advancing Climate Ambition: How City-Scale Actions Can Contribute to Global Climate Goals |date=30 September 2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/advancing-climate-ambition-how-city-scale-actions-can-contribute-to-global-climate-goals/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2014advancing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Advancing Climate Ambition: How City-Scale Actions Can Contribute to Global Climate Goals}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/advancing-climate-ambition-how-city-scale-actions-can-contribute-to-global-climate-goals/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }