ABSTRACT
Cities today consume 75 percent of the world's energy and emit 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gases (GHGs). Cities are both the major generators of GHGs and the key players in reduction. There is growing attention on the relationship between cities and climate change. In this chapter we begin with a discussion of the potential impacts of climate change on cities. We then examine the two ways that cities are dealing with the issue: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation refers to measures that alter the behavior of the citizens to reduce anthropogenic effects on climate change, mainly efforts that reduce emissions of GHGs. Adaptation, on the other hand, involves pursuing projects that work to accommodate citizens to the inevitable future of global environmental changes. While mitigation and adaptation were often seen as competing processes, today there is a general consensus that there is a need for both approaches to be pursued simultaneously. This view holds that while climate change is inevitable and will need to be adapted to, it is still possible to mitigate the severity of this change by altering human behaviors. Cities have the ability to experiment and innovate, and this is the hope and core of resilience around climate change.
