SummaryGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions baselines are presented for 44 urban areas (cities or metropolitan regions). The types of methodology that have been used to attribute GHGs to urban areas are reviewed. All are essentially adaptations or simplifications of the IPCC guidelines, and incorporate the WRI/WBCSD concepts of Scope 2 and 3 "crossboundary" emissions. Analysis of previous studies shows where specific differences in methodology exist. Some Scope 3 emissions such as those embodied in materials, food, and fuel consumed in cities, have only been quantified in a few studies, and should be included in further studies. Baseline emissions are presented with and without emissions from: industrial processes; and agriculture, forestry and other land-use (AFOLU) (both of which may be incomplete); as well as: waste; and aviation / marine (for which there are differences in methodology). Despite these often minor differences, the potential clearly exists to establish an open, global protocol for quantifying GHG emissions attributable to urban areas.

Cities are faced with a number of sustainability challenges in the context of climate change. There is an urgent need to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cities if ambitious mitigation targets are to be met. Meanwhile, cities are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change unless adaptation plans can be put in place. The need to connect climate change adaptation and mitigation with broader assessment of sustainability is becoming increasingly recognised. This paper describes an urban integrated assessment facility developed by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, which simulates socio-economic change, climate impacts and greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the twenty first century at the city scale. The urban integrated assessment facility adopts a broad-scale systems approach to urban development and sustainability assessment. It incorporates a multi-sectoral model of the regional economy, hierarchical city-scale spatial interaction model and modules for assessment of climate impacts, adaptation options and greenhouse gas emissions. The paper demonstrates how the urban integrated assessment facility quantifies synergies and conflicts between adaptation to climate change and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in order to improve decision making and facilitate the development of portfolios of planning policies that together have a realistic prospect of achieving sustainable outcomes for cities

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