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

Felix Creutzig; Timon McPhearson; Ronita Bardhan; Camille Belmin; Winston T. L. Chow; Matthias Garschagen; Angel Hsu; Şiir  Kılkış; Sheikh Tawhidul Islam; Nikola Milojevic-Dupont; Minal Pathak; Rafael H. M. Pereira; Pourya Salehi; Diana Urge-Vorsatz

doi:10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w

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

Felix Creutzig
, Timon McPhearson
, Ronita Bardhan
, Camille Belmin
, Winston T. L. Chow
, Matthias Garschagen
, Angel Hsu
, Şiir Kılkış
, Sheikh Tawhidul Islam
, Nikola Milojevic-Dupont
, Minal Pathak
, Rafael H. M. Pereira
, Pourya Salehi
, Diana Urge-Vorsatz

Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
University of Sussex
Technical University of Berlin
The New School
Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Stockholm University
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
University of Cambridge
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg
Singapore Management University
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye
Jahangirnagar University
Beihang University
Ahmedabad University
Institute for Applied Economic Research
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, European Secretariat

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	369-378
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nat Cities
Volume	2
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w
State	Published - 18 Apr 2025

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

Climate-change adaptation
Climate-change impacts
Climate-change mitigation

Access to Document

10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w

Cite this

Creutzig, F., McPhearson, T., Bardhan, R., Belmin, C., Chow, W. T. L., Garschagen, M., Hsu, A., Kılkış, Ş., Islam, S. T., Milojevic-Dupont, N., Pathak, M., Pereira, R. H. M., Salehi, P., & Urge-Vorsatz, D. (2025). Bridging the scale between the local particular and the global universal in climate change assessments of cities. Nat Cities, 2(5), 369-378. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w

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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.",

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Creutzig, F, McPhearson, T, Bardhan, R, Belmin, C, Chow, WTL, Garschagen, M, Hsu, A, Kılkış, Ş, Islam, ST, Milojevic-Dupont, N, Pathak, M, Pereira, RHM, Salehi, P & Urge-Vorsatz, D 2025, 'Bridging the scale between the local particular and the global universal in climate change assessments of cities', Nat Cities, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 369-378. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00226-w

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AU - Belmin, Camille

AU - Chow, Winston T. L.

AU - Garschagen, Matthias

AU - Hsu, Angel

AU - Kılkış, Şiir

AU - Islam, Sheikh Tawhidul

AU - Milojevic-Dupont, Nikola

AU - Pathak, Minal

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AU - Salehi, Pourya

AU - Urge-Vorsatz, Diana

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

Abstract (may include machine translation)

UN SDGs

Keywords

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