Abstract

The world is becoming increasingly urban with the city populations set to reach 68% by 2050 while also being home to significant concentrations of people and assets that are especially exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This report explores the linkage between the national climate plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and urban issues.

This report represents a collaboration between the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU.Resilience) in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. This report presents a global analysis of the urban context of NDCs, including consideration of the many challenges and opportunities in the response to the climate crisis in the context of the urban setting.

Results of the analysis, including illustrative country approaches for effective multi-level governance, were presented at COP27 and represent Parties’ efforts in integrating national climate policies with urban climate action, which is fundamental to raising ambition and delivering climate ambition to help meet the 1.5⁰C target and respond to the climate emergency.