Cities and Climate Change
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2021-11-27
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Citation of Original Publication
Short, John Rennie, and Abbey Farmer. 2021. "Cities and Climate Change" Earth 2, no. 4: 1038-1045. https://doi.org/10.3390/earth2040061
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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Abstract
This review paper considers the disjuncture between the rapid pace of climate change and
the more sluggish ability of cities to fully implement effective strategies of climate change adaptation
and mitigation. We will refer to this as the ‘slow city–quick climate change’ dilemma. Climate
change is accelerating, quickly rendering obsolete previous urban forms inadequate, while structural
adjustments to cities are slower moving. Cities around the world were largely built for previous
climate regimes. In the short to medium term, there is a mismatch between the climate regime that
cities were designed for and the climate regime they now inhabit. The paper is divided into four
parts: a brief review of climate change in general; climate change in cities; a review of climate change
adaptation and mitigation in cities; and finally, a discussion of urban futures in the time of climate
regime change.