The urban environment in today’s world is a complex structure of interlinked social, ecological and technical systems. In addition, global warming is projected to have a broad array of impacts in many urban areas. Cities are now home to more than half of the world’s population. Cities consume much of the world’s energy du; and thus provide much of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, to varying extents, cities are also vulnerable to climate change impacts. Increasing urbanization has significant implications for climate change: air quality, water availability and quality, land use, and waste management.

Climate change is expected to increase stress on the built and natural environments of cities as well as create new challenges for the urban service and management systems. Climate change is expected to generate a range of environmental impacts that cities must address in adaptation planning, including more frequent extreme heat events, droughts, storm events, sea-level rise, and changes of disease vectors.

Cities have a unique ability to address global climate change. Thus adaptation and increasing resilience constitutes priorities for cities and have key roles in mitigating climate change. Cities need an integrated approach that considers mitigation, adaptation and urban development. A systematic, integrated approach for assessing different alternatives for reducing the impacts of climate change and building resilience in urban settings is therefore, urgently required at both the local and national level. These integrated approach include (i). Air-quality improvement; (ii). Effective storm- water and flood-risk management, (iii). Heat-stress management, (iv). Increasing and preservation of urban greenery, (v). Integrated land-use and energy-efficient transport planning, and (vi). Energy-efficient new building designs and low-carbon, climate-resilient urban infrastructure.

A growing number of cities around the world are addressing climate change in an integrated approach. Some case studies of addressing urban climate challenges with coordinated planning and policies, sustainable environmental services and frameworks for infrastructure like smart grids and adaptive capacities of cities will be discussed in this presentation.