Cities IPCC Conference 2018

The conference seeks to forge stronger partnerships among these communities and catalyze new processes for joint knowledge production; connect existing data platforms and potentially initiate new ones; as well as catalyze funding to meet these goals. It will bring together representatives from academia, scientific bodies, other research organizations and agencies; member states of the United Nations; city and regional governments; and urban and climate change practitioners and policy-makers. The main aims are to improve scientific knowledge and to stimulate research underpinning effective and efficient urban responses to climate change, as well as to provide inputs to the products of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Conference Objectives

The overall objectives of the “Cities and Climate Change Science Conference: Fostering new scientific knowledge for cities based on science, practice and policy” are to:

• identify key research and knowledge gaps with regard to cities and climate change
• inspire global and regional research that will lead to peer-reviewed publications and scientific reports, co-designed and co-produced knowledge leading to effective and inclusive urban practices
• stimulate research on Cities and Climate Change during the AR6 cycle

The specific aims of the conference are to:

1. Take stock of the scientific literature, data and other sources of knowledge that have emerged around cities and climate change since the close of Fifth Assessment Report (i.e. September-October 2013) and build on ongoing work as part of the AR6 cycle.
2. Identify key gaps in the scientific literature, in keeping with the emphasis that arises from the scoping of the AR6 and its three Special Reports and international, regional and national policy and implementation imperatives that emerge from COP21, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda.
3. Identify key research and knowledge gaps with the aim of stimulating new research, the findings of which to be assessed in Seventh Assessment Report’s Special Report on Cities and Climate Change1.
4. Develop novel assessment frameworks that take into account the systemic linkages, synergies and trade-offs between urban systems and climate change, especially action at the local scale.
5. Identify the research gaps in terms of policy and implementation in order to facilitate the consideration of such areas in anticipation of the Special Report on Cities and Climate Change.
6. Bring together key urban and climate change stakeholders to identify priorities for scientific and policy research during the AR6 cycle and to stimulate the co-design and co-production of actionable knowledge.
7. Building on established United Nations, member state and research network initiatives, help define appropriate global, regional and local monitoring systems and data architectures to facilitate scientific research and to help inform evidence-based policy development on climate change and cities.
8. Establish a partnership-based platform to systematically accumulate, assess, analyze and disseminate information on science-policy-practice linkages that enable an upscaling and mainstreaming of urban climate actions at all scales.