Cities and Climate Change

Prof Harriet Bulkeley played a key part in the development of the UN-Habitat’s Guiding Principles for City Climate Action Planning. Used to develop and evaluate climate strategies at the city scale, the Guiding Principles shape how urban policymakers plan and deliver action for climate change across the world, helping cities reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impact of climate change and build climate resilience. By setting a global benchmark for what is needed to achieve effective and socially just climate action, the Guiding Principles and associated toolkit represent a step change in global policy arenas. Drawing on the evidence developed by Durham University research, it is the first framework to explicitly identify the critical importance of climate justice at the urban level and to capture the importance of fairness and inclusivity, offering support for cities at all levels of development. 

By establishing that cities are critical to achieving long-term global goals for climate action, Durham University research has challenged the orthodox focus on national and international scales within climate change agendas and has helped to establish what good climate action planning looks like.

Staff links

Prof Harriet Bulkeley https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/h-a-bulkeley/

Andres Luque-Ayala https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/a-e-luque/

Dr Andrea Armstrong https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/andrea-armstrong/

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