What cities do best

The document argues that urban GHG mitigation is most effective when governments at different levels operate according to their comparative advantages. It categorizes city roles into policy leaders, critical implementers, and strategic partners, mapping these roles to specific abatement potentials in transport, buildings, and waste. The authors emphasize that national governments must provide enabling actions—specifically financial support, technical capacity, and policy alignment—to unlock this potential. Case studies of China, the United States, and Brazil illustrate varying degrees of vertical integration and identify specific national-level gaps that hinder city-scale climate action.

• Under a coordinated vertically integrated approach, city governments' ideal roles are divided by abatement potential: roughly 20% of potential is best addressed with cities as 'policy leaders and architects', 40% with cities as 'critical implementers' of national policies, and the remaining 40% with cities as 'strategic partners' taking complementary actions.
• The highest potential for city-led policy leadership is found in the passenger transport sector, specifically through improved spatial planning, the promotion of walking and bicycling, transit system development, and transportation management.
• Cities are most effective as critical implementers in the residential and commercial buildings sectors, where they can oversee compliance with national energy codes and retrofit requirements.
• City governments act as strategic partners for abatement goals that require national uniformity and economies of scale, such as appliance and vehicle efficiency standards, distributed energy systems (e.g., rooftop solar), and landfill gas capture.
• The most critical global enabling action needed from national governments to support city-level mitigation is the building of technical capacity, particularly for building energy efficiency, which represents about two-thirds of urban abatement potential in 2030.
• Access to financial resources is a primary barrier for cities, especially for capital-intensive projects like public transit infrastructure and electric vehicle charging networks.
• In China, while the system is officially centralized, 'de facto federalism' allows for local experimentation; however, deeper reductions require strengthening national building codes and reforming the power sector to incentivize utility investment in efficiency.
• The United States lacks a comprehensive national policy framework for climate change, leading to fragmented urban action; the authors suggest that replicating California's multi-level complementary approach at the national level could deepen reductions.
• In Brazil, significant urban abatement potential exists in transport and buildings, but progress is hindered by federal resistance to subnational regulatory authority and a lack of funding for mass transit infrastructure.

APA

Broekhoff, D., Erickson, P., & Lee, C. M. (2015). What cities do best. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-WP-2015-15-Cities-vertical-climate-governance.pdf

Chicago

Broekhoff, Derik, Peter Erickson, and Carrie M. Lee. What cities do best. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-WP-2015-15-Cities-vertical-climate-governance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Broekhoff |first1=Derik |last2=Erickson |first2=Peter |last3=Lee |first3=Carrie M. |title=What cities do best |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=November 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-WP-2015-15-Cities-vertical-climate-governance.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{broekhoff2015what, author = {Broekhoff, Derik and Erickson, Peter and Lee, Carrie M.}, title = {{What cities do best}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-WP-2015-15-Cities-vertical-climate-governance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }