The report, “Climate Change and Cities: First Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (ARC3),” is a comprehensive study detailing the risks global cities face due to a warming world. The report, which includes contributions from 110 authors in 50 cities, also explains how urban populations are working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the impact of climate change, such as increased heat waves, drought and flooding. Climate trends and projections for twelve cities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the U.S., including Athens, Dakar, Delhi, Harare, Kingston, London, Melbourne, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Toronto, are analyzed in depth.

“This study should serve as a wake-up call about the need to make cities a key focus of global climate change research and response efforts,” statedCynthia Rosenzweig, a climate impacts scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Center for Climate Systems Research, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, as well as one of the co-editors of the report. Work on the report was convened by the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), a global coalition of researchers specializing in climate change from an urban perspective. UCCRN was founded at the Earth Institute in 2007.”