Assessing climate action in 885 European cities: latest results on mitigation and adaptation efforts in urban planning

The IPCC in its Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC has once again confirmed the urgency in undertaking effective actions to limit temperature rise to 1.5 °C or 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels. Recently, the UN Climate Action Summit held in New York has further contributed to the elevated attention of world leaders to climate change, calling for adequate national engagements in line with the 1.5°C target. It largely means defining policies and plans to move towards net zero emissions by 2050. In these high-level political forums, cities play an increasingly important role, recognizing that this is where most of the world's population lives. Cities are where direct impacts are strongly felt and adaptations efforts are needed, but also where possibly great mitigation potentials do lie. At the end of the UN Climate Action Summit over 100 cities have committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This represents a huge achievement, but what do European cities do and how do they compare? This study aims to understand how European cities actually respond to the opportunities and threats of climate change. The research focuses on 885 Urban Audit cities across the EU-28 which represents a balanced and regionally representative sample, geographically dispersed and varying in size. The study draws from a detailed assessment of Local Climate Plans (LCPs) in Europe undertaken at the end of 2017. The methodological approach is based on an extended search and content analysis of LCPs, officially adopted and published in each city. A standardized data gathering protocol was used to guide the overall process to ensure consistency and meaningful comparisons. This was supported by the development of an analytical framework to distinguish LCP typologies across the EU-28. The results show two dimensions: the spatial level of policy drivers (autonomously developed at urban level, required by national legislation, induced by international climate networks) and level of integration with other local policy instruments (comprehensive and standalone, mainstreamed and inclusive, stand-alone but addressing partial sources and impacts). The research was undertaken by more than 40 researchers from 20 European countries that have worked and are familiar with the language and respective urban and climate policies in each country. Thus this analysis does not rely on self-report measures such as questionnaires and interviews with city officials, which might introduce subjective bias. Instead it is based on actual plans and actions allowing a more accurate and representative analysis of LCPs across the 885 cities. The presentation will provide an overview of the state of adaptation and mitigation planning across European regions, countries and city size. It will also show whether European cities address climate change issues by way of dedicated or rather mainstreamed LCPs (integrated in sectoral and development planning) and will discuss the relative influence of local, national or international policies and networks on these issues. The latest results obtained by an in-depth content analysis of mitigation LCPs will further highlight the cities ambition level in achieving the climate targets.