International standards for climate-friendly cities

Hurth, Victoria; McCarney, Patricia L.

doi:10.1038/nclimate2823

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…While urban direct emissions and associated reduction opportunities are comparatively wellstudied (e.g. (Satterthwaite 2008, Hurth and McCarney 2015, Grubler et al 2012, Kennedy et al 2014 Most of the scenarios from the uncertainty analysis suggest a more unequal distribution of carbon footprints than the base model predicts. This is because CFs must be greater than zero and, at the same time, can be become many times larger as those from the base model and thus the scenarios in the sensitivity analysis are constrained with a lower bound of 10% of the original CF but no upper bound.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon footprints of 13 000 cities

Moran

Kanemoto

Jiborn

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

316

165

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While it is understood that cities generate the majority of carbon emissions, for most cities, towns, and rural areas around the world no carbon footprint (CF) has been estimated. The Gridded Global Model of City Footprints (GGMCF) presented here downscales national CFs into a 250 m gridded model using data on population, purchasing power, and existing subnational CF studies from the US, China, EU, and Japan. Studies have shown that CFs are highly concentrated by income, with the top decile of earners driving 30%-45% of emissions. Even allowing for significant modeling uncertainties, we find that emissions are similarly concentrated in a small number of cities. The highest emitting 100 urban areas (defined as contiguous population clusters) account for 18% of the global carbon footprint. While many of the cities with the highest footprints are in countries with high carbon footprints, nearly one quarter of the top cities (41 of the top 200) are in countries with relatively low emissions. In these cities population and affluence combine to drive footprints at a scale similar to those of cities in high-income countries. We conclude that concerted action by a limited number of local governments can have a disproportionate impact on global emissions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon footprints of 13 000 cities

Moran

Kanemoto

Jiborn

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

316

165

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the process to produce and publish ISO 37120 required 6 international meetings, 5 drafts, and 300 comments [53]. It took only two years to create ISO 37120, "since the indicators were already well tested and reported on by GCIF member cities" [50], which had selected indicators that addressed city priorities, information needs, and challenges [52].…”

Section: Origins Of Iso 37120mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although ISO 37120 explicitly claims to apply to all cities [53,56], it does not specifically judge cities by setting benchmarks that represent good or poor performance. Instead, by promoting voluntary standards and voluntarily supplied participation [57], the authors of ISO 37120 argue that cities will achieve a number of benefits from collecting the indicator data, such as more effective governance and service delivery, and informed decision making [58].…”

Section: An Analysis Of Iso 37120mentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Progress toward Urban Sustainability: Do Global Measures Work for Arctic Cities?

Berman

Orttung

2020

Sustainability

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The International Organization for Standardization recently responded to a growing global interest in cities by developing an index for measuring urban sustainability (ISO 37120). We address how well this standard applies to Arctic cities, and potential modifications that might improve its performance. After briefly discussing the goals of sustainability indicators, we examine the extent to which Arctic cities’ remote location, cold and changing climate, and thin, largely resource-based economies may create different sustainability challenges. We then critically examine the content of ISO 37120 and the context in which it was created. We place the index within a broader discussion of urban sustainability indicators and examine the extent to which it really addresses sustainability. We then analyze how well the ISO 37120 accounts for the characteristic features of Arctic cities that produce unique sustainability challenges. Our findings show that only half of ISO 37120′s 128 indicators actually measure future-oriented concerns. We suggest that, while the ISO 37120 may be a useful starting point in quantifying Arctic urban sustainability, the index should only be used as a foundation for a more in-depth analysis. To better represent Arctic cities, the ISO 37120 would need to include indicators that situate cities within their regional contexts, addressing both remoteness and the underlying basis of the Arctic city economy. The index should also measure the role of Indigenous populations, and chart the extent to which cities are working to increase levels of sustainability.

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Climate change in Lagos state, Nigeria: what really changed?

Sojobi

Balogun

Salami

2016

Environ Monit Assess

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Our study revealed periodicities of 2.3 and 2.25 years in wet and dry seasons and periodicities of 2 to 5 years on seasonal and annual timescales. Minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax) and evaporation recorded increases of 2.47, 1.37 and 28.37 %, respectively, but a reduction of 19.58 % in rainfall on decadal timescale. Periodicity of 8 to 12 years was also observed in annual Tmax. Cramer's test indicated a warming trend with significant Tmax increase in February, April, July, August, October and November during 2000-2009 on decadal monthly timescale, a significant decline in Summer rainfall but significant Tmax increase in Spring, Autumn and Winter on decadal seasonal timescale. The low correlation of rainfall with temperature parameters and evaporation indicates that advection of moisture into Lagos State seems to be the dominant mechanism controlling rainfall within the State alongside other tropical and extra-tropical factors. In addition, our study revealed that the persistent state of minimum temperature often precedes the arrival and reversal of the phase of maximum temperature. Furthermore, our study also revealed that extreme and high variable rainfalls, which are associated with the increased warming trend, had periodicities of 1 to 3 years with a probability of 86.45 % of occurring every 3 years between April and September. It is recommended that government and private sector should give financial and technical supports to climate researches in order to appropriately inform policy making to improve the adaptive capacity and resilience of Lagos State against climate change impacts and guard against maladaptation.

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International standards for climate-friendly cities

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Carbon footprints of 13 000 cities

Carbon footprints of 13 000 cities

Measuring Progress toward Urban Sustainability: Do Global Measures Work for Arctic Cities?

Climate change in Lagos state, Nigeria: what really changed?

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