262 ■ CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE
and how each may contribute to a city’s emission reduction. In “Getting to Car-
bon Neutral,” Kennedy and others establish measures of cost eff ectiveness for
reducing GHG emissions from 22 city case studies.
Th e issue of adaptation is perhaps deemed “closer to home” than mitiga-
tion, because it has a clear local impact rather than a more global impact. Pen-
ney, Ligeti, and Dickison, in their paper “Climate Change Adaptation Planning
in Toronto,” document Toronto’s process for creating an adaptation strategy
and framework document and refl ect on barriers to integration with existing
city plans and programs. Th ey note the specifi c departments and programs
involved as well as the process by which adaptation strategies were incorpo-
rated into these, but they also note barriers to implementation. In a very capti-
vating example related to addressing urban form, Carbonell and Meff ert assess
large-scale ecosystem restoration, fl ood protection, jurisdictional advocacy and
oversight, and land policies that promote climate change adaptation and miti-
gation for New Orleans and the wider regional ecosystem in “Climate Change
and the Resilience of New Orleans.” Th ey make a series of recommendations
regarding the restoration of ecosystem services and the potential benefi ts for
urban systems.
Although we cannot accurately predict the specifi c long-term conse-
quences of a changing climate for a particular city, we should embrace this
uncertainty; it is important to move forward with the current state of knowl-
edge and for cities to determine how best to mitigate GHG emissions in
their own context—taking due care of national and international policies.
Although uncertainty remains on the impacts of climate change, particularly
at fi ne spatial scales, the research presented here and elsewhere demonstrates
that new insights are being made available to others and are developing at
a rapid pace. It is important for these to be translated into useful policy-
making tools.
City Institutions and Governance for Climate Change
Shobhakar Dhakal and Enessa Janes
Appropriate forms of governance and institutional involvement are critical
for achieving successful urban climate change mitigation and adaptation. Th e
papers in this thematic area explore a unique aspect of governance and provide
insights on current institutional considerations in the context of climate change.
Together, they address a set of important questions, including the following:
- What are the motivations of cities to address climate change?
- What types of climate-related governance systems are currently being devel-
oped, and what are the institutional mechanisms that have emerged?