Fifth Urban research symposium: Cities and climate change, responding to an urgent agenda

The topic for the 5th Urban Research Symposium is Cities and Climate Change: Responding to the Urgent Agenda. At a time when climate change is a major priority for the international community, this Symposium aims at pushing forward the research agenda on climate change from a city’s perspective. Specifically, the main questions will be structured around the impacts of city and urban growth on climate change; measuring and anticipating the consequences of climate change on urban quality of life, city assets, and local and national economies; and assessing alternatives to increase the resilience of cities and related costs and incentives required for successful implementation.

The Symposium is structured around five broad research clusters which represent the most relevant issues faced by cities and peri-urban areas on climate change.

- Science and Indicators of Climate Change and Related Impacts: Understanding and measuring how cities impact, and are impacted by, climate change.
- Infrastructure, Built Environment, and Energy Efficiency: Planning efficiently and effectively to increase the resilience of cities.
- Role of Institutions, Governance, and Urban Planning: Improving management, coordination, and planning of cities to meet climate change challenges.
- Incentive policies, economics and finance: Understanding how and why cities respond to climate change.
- Social aspects of climate change: Understanding and reducing vulnerability of urban populations to climate change.

There will be three methods in which research will be presented and shared at the Symposium. First, a background paper on each cluster summarizing the current literature and, more importantly, identifying the knowledge gaps, will be commissioned. Second, commissioned research on specific topics will be undertaken through direct funding from our partners. Third, an open call for papers will be distributed through the Bank, its partners, major research journals and listservs. It is expected that 50-60 papers will be selected from the proposals submitted from the call for papers. Adaptation and mitigation will be given equal priority in the selection of proposals. Researchers from developing countries whose papers are accepted will be given priority in the allocation of funding for travel to the Symposium. Authors of papers that do not make the final set will be invited to make their presentation in the form of posters.

Two publications are expected to be produced following the Symposium. The first publication will include the ten most relevant and cutting-edge research papers directed towards academics and researchers. The second will be a handbook aimed at decision makers of no more than 40 short papers on the practical applications of dealing with the challenge of climate change in cities. These papers will have a strong emphasis on policy implications, mitigation and adaptation strategies, and new options for financing climate change-related policies and technologies.