ABSTRACT
‘If this was easy we would have been finished long ago. This is complex!’ exclaimed United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) chair Christiana Figueres midway through the Conference of Parties (COP17) gathered in Durban in December 2011. The Durban conference served as a reminder that, while the goal of tackling climate change is clear, the process of realising the necessary objectives is complex and contested. While COP17 failed to deliver the required ambition from nation-states, one of the new themes to emerge was the important role of cities in adapting to climate change and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The increasing focus on cities is in many ways a natural process, resulting from the growing number of people living in cities, the contribution of cities to the global economy and the fact that cities increasingly have independent, internationally recognised political, ecological and economic identities.
