Cities and Climate Change

Climate change causes a lot of issues such as floods and drought that have costly impacts on cities' basic services, infrastructure, housing, human livelihoods and health. Cities are a key contributor to climate change, as urban activities are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates suggest that cities are responsible for 75 percent of global CO2 emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest contributors.

Many cities are already doing a lot by using renewable energy sources, cleaner production techniques and regulations or incentives to limit industrial emissions. Cutting emissions will also reduce local pollution from industries and transport, thus improving urban air quality and the health of city dwellers.

A Joint Work Programme between UNEP, the World Bank, UN-Habitat, under the facilitating role of Cities Alliance to address cities and climate change. With a focus on developing countries, this partnership aims to support local and national governments in urban adaptation and mitigation processes. One of the main outputs of this cooperation is an online knowledge centre which provides information on cities and climate change.

What is buildings and Climate Change?

Buildings can be vulnerable to climate change. In the future there may be an increase in the risk of collapse, declining health and significant loss of value as a result of more storms, snow or subsidence damage, water encroachment, deteriorating indoor climate and reduced building lifetime. In the short term stronger storms are the greatest challenge. 

Storms will constitute a safety risk in those parts of existing buildings that do not meet the building code's safety requirements. In the longer term, more and longer-lasting heat waves could have health-related consequences, especially for the elderly and weak, in nursing homes, for example.