Climate Change and Urban Policy Choices

A course given in the master Governing Ecological Transition in Cities (GETIC) in Sciences Po.

2 hours per week, for 12 weeks

Objective of the course

It is far from trivial for urban decision-makers to account for climate concerns in their decisions. First, the effectiveness of potential urban environmental policies is difficult to assess. The ways urban policies may impact GHG emissions or our vulnerability to climate change are numerous and complex. Various urban policies may interact, leading to synergies or trade-offs which are not always clearly understood. Second, climate action does not happen in a vacuum, but in a political context with pre-existing issues, social tensions, and policy objectives. The main objective of this course is therefore double:

• To understand the main challenges that metropolitan regions are facing in relation to climate change
• How to critically assess the potential responses to these challenges.

Program overview

There are 12 sessions, grouped into 4 themes:

• Climate change impacts on cities (3 sessions)
• Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in cities (3 sessions)
• Implementing climate policies (3 sessions)
• Cross-cutting issues (3 sessions)

Courses in this program

• 1. Cross-cutting issue I: Introduction

  Introduction to climate change and greenhouse gases emissions

• 2. Climate change impacts I

  Key climate impacts and indirect impacts

• 3. Climate change impacts II

  Health issues and heat waves

• 4: Climate change impacts III

  Adaptation to “natural” disasters (floods, hurricanes etc.)

• 5: Implementing climate policies I

  Framing an adaptation strategy.

• 6. Climate change mitigation I

  Transport emissions in cities

• 7. Cross-cutting issues II

  Urban form and land planning

• 8. Implementing climate policies II

  Negociation game

• 9. Climate change mitigation II

  Buildings and residential energy consumption (heating, cooling etc.)

• 10: Climate change mitigation III

  Other emissions (food, consumption-based emissions etc.)

• 11: Implementing climate policies III

  Framing a mitigation strategy

• 12: Cross-cutting issues III

  Questions and conclusion

General references

• Cities and Climate Change (article) on MIT website
• U.S. National Climate Assessment: “Built Environment, Urban Systems, and Cities” (report)
• C40 knowledge hub “Cutting-edge insights and practical resources from leading climate cities.” This website provides synthetic reports about main climate-related issues in cities, as well as numerous examples of adaptation and mitigation policies implemented in cities around the world.
• Carbon Brief provides clear articles about the latest research on climate change and climate policies. Their newsletter is a must-read for anyone interested by climate change.

For more information, here are the main reference documents (difficult to read in their entirety, but useful to look for specific questions) :

• The Summaries for Urban Policymakers of the IPCC reports
• About adaptation policies in cities: IPCC 2022, Working Group 2 on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability to climate change. “Chapter 6: Cities, settlements and key infrastructure.”
• About mitigation policies in cities: IPCC 2022, Working Group 3 on Mitigation of Climate Change. “Chapter 8: Urban systems and other settlements."
• Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W., Romero-Lankao, P., Mehrotra, S., Dhakal, S., & Ali Ibrahim, S. (Eds.). (2018). Climate Change and Cities: Second Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network. Cambridge University Press.

FAQs

Self-assessment quiz

To know your knowledge level on climate change.

It is recommended that you know what to answer to the following questions, to take the most of the course.

• Begin the course