Bringing climate change to the city: towards low carbon urbanism?

In this paper, we reflect on the role of cities in responding to climate change over the two decades since the historic agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We find a growth in the scale and nature of municipal responses to climate change that has been one of the most significant features of the changing climate governance landscape over the past two decades. We suggest that this has not been a static or uniform process, and reflect on the changing nature of urban responses to climate change over the past two decades, the emergence of new politics of low-carbon urbanism, and challenges that lie ahead for research and policy as this agenda begins to take shape on the ground.