Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN)

11/05/2025

🌍 New ARC3.3 Publication Release!

UCCRN and Cambridge University Press & Assessment are pleased to announce the publication of the ARC3.3 Planning, Urban Design, and Architecture for Climate Action Element, now available online.

📘 Access the Element here: https://lnkd.in/gRdqJ-ST

This new ARC3.3 Element brings together practitioner-led research, case studies, and design strategies for advancing climate action across metropolitan regions, cities, neighborhoods, and buildings. The assessment highlights how innovative planning, urban design, and architectural approaches can transform cities into resilient, low-carbon, and equitable places for all.

Authored by an extraordinary team from 23 cities across 15 countries, the publication exemplifies the global collaboration and interdisciplinary expertise that define UCCRN’s work.

🙌 Congratulations to Coordinating Lead Authors Jeffrey Raven, PhD, FAIA, LEED BD.C & Mattia Leone, and to the full author team for your remarkable contributions to this assessment for climate-resilient urban futures.

🔗 Explore more about the ARC3.3 series: https://lnkd.in/gkXsSZmt

06/13/2025

🌍 New ARC3.3 Release: Justice for Resilient Development in Climate-Stressed Cities

UCCRN and Cambridge University Press & Assessment are pleased to announce the second publication in the ARC3.3 series, Justice for Resilient Development in Climate-Stressed Cities, now available online.

ARC3.3 Justice analyzes differential exposure to a variety of climate events in urban areas, including landslides, flooding, and droughts, describes dimensions of urban climate justice, and provides "good practice" examples of climate responses – both adaptation and mitigation – that embed broader city contexts related to equity, informality, and justice.

Read ARC3.3 Justice ➡️ https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/justice-for-resilient-development-in-climatestressed-cities/6AAD1044CF94180ACF13FC2476E23B52

The publication features new climate change and cities research, city case studies, and actionable strategies for embedding justice into urban climate policy.

The figure below shows vulnerability to heavy precipitation and landslides overlayed with urban populations living in informal areas. Susceptible cities are found in the Andean and Himalayan region, in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, along with areas of Northern Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Western China, in particular.

Thank you to our Coordinating Lead Authors, Diana Reckien and Sirkku Juhola, Lead Authors, Anika Nasra Haque, Heba Allah Khalil, Maria Fernanda Lemos, Shuaib Lwasa, Leila Niamir, Juan Camilo Osorio Botero, Cristina Visconti, and Contributing/Case Study Authors, Aditya V. Bahadur, Chiara Camponeschi, Belén Olaya García, Alejandra Marcela Vanegas Díaz, Gerard Martínez Görbig, Michelle Mycoo, Wilma Nchito, Basirat Oyalowo, Sheetal Patil, Emma Porio, Paula Presser, and Chandni Singh.

Thank you to ARC3.3 Series Editors, Bill Solecki, Minal Pathak, Martha Barata, Aliyu Salisu Barau, Maria Dombrov, and Cynthia Rosenzweig.

🌐 Learn More about ARC3.3: https://uccrn.ei.columbia.edu/arc3.3

📚 View the First Publication in the ARC3.3 Series on COVID-19, Climate Change and Cities: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/learning-from-covid19-for-climateready-urban-transformation/3B01330DCDDA163C271ECE4A28AC68DB

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05/23/2025

02/17/2025

UCCRN is thrilled to announce the publication of Learning from COVID-19 for Climate-Ready Urban Transformation, which is the first of twelve publications in the UCCRN Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3.3) series!

Published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, ARC3.3 COVID-19 focuses on understanding how COVID-19-related city-level responses impacted climate change mitigation and adaptation actions, and vice versa in terms of warnings, lessons learned, and calls to action.

Read ARC3.3 COVID-19 ➡️ https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/learning-from-covid19-for-climateready-urban-transformation/3B01330DCDDA163C271ECE4A28AC68DB


The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaps in city readiness for simultaneous responses to and , particularly in the Global South. However, these concurrent challenges present opportunities to reformulate current patterns, hashtag , and the dynamics they enable.

ARC3.3 COVID-19 synthesizes the latest scientific knowledge on COVID-19, climate change, and cities, a new dimension of research, policy recommendations, case studies, and urban stakeholder engagement.

The figure below shows COVID-19 confirmed cases for the six World Health Organization regions by city size (based on data from https://lnkd.in/gCGc6_Zn, accessed January 3, 2022). UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme)

Thank you to our Coordinating Lead Authors, Darshini Mahadevia (Ahmedabad University) and Gian Delgado (National Autonomous University of Mexico), our Lead Authors, Janice Barnes, Joan Fitzgerald, Miho Kamei, Kevin Lanza, and Contributing/Case Study Authors, Zaheer Allam, Amita Bhide, Yakubu Bununu, Amitkumar Dubey, Didier Chabaud, Yann FRANÇOISE, Saumya Lathia, Fernanda Mac Gregor, Carlos Moreno, Marie-Christine Therrien, Nada Toueir, Nelzair Vianna, and Melissa López Portillo-Purata!!

Thank you to ARC3.3 Series Editors, Bill Solecki, Minal Pathak, Martha Barata, Aliyu Salisu Barau, Maria Dombrov, and Cynthia Rosenzweig.

To learn more about ARC3.3, visit https://uccrn.ei.columbia.edu/arc3.3

C40 Cities, Columbia Climate School, Klimatorium - Danmarks internationale klimacenter, IPCC, UCCRN Education

10/14/2024

Call for ARC3.3 Case Studies on Circular Economy in Cities -

The Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) is a global consortium of over 2,000 individuals from over 150 cities dedicated to the analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation from the urban perspective. Currently, UCCRN is in the process of publishing its Third Assessment Report on C...

09/10/2024

Join us at Innovate4Cities in Montreal to learn more about our Urban Design Climate Workshops, Case Study Atlas, and Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities.

Tuesday, September 10th from 2:50 - 3:10 PM EDT -- Climate by Design: Empowering Cities to Take Local Climate Action Through UCCRN’s Urban Design Climate Workshops; Le Westin, Palais (8th floor)

Wednesday, September 11th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM EDT -- UCCRN Case Study Atlas Open Meeting; Le Westin, Ville Marie (9th floor)

Thursday, September 12th from 12:25 - 1:25 PM EDT -- Scaling Up and Speeding Up: New Recommendations for Climate Action in Cities, Emerging from The Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ACR3.3); Le Westin, Ramezay Room (8th floor)

07/03/2024

Sustainable Futures sits down with climate science pioneer Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig to discuss the impacts and opportunities of on our urban environments and how we can create more .

Listen to the podcast

In this episode, Sustainable Futures sits down with climate science pioneer Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig to discuss the impacts and opportunities of climate change on our urban environments and how we can create more resilient communities. Dr. Rosenzweig’s work has been at the forefront of climate scien...

04/18/2024

04/03/2024

UCCRN hosted a Rio G20 side event at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on March 27, 2024. Sponsored by the Columbia Global Center | Rio de Janeiro, UCCRN Education, and UCCRN’s Latin American Hub, the Expert Meeting brought together international urban experts – as part of UCCRN’s Year of Climate Action – to engage in the global discourse on climate change and cities. The meeting stimulated breakthrough thinking, ignited opportunities for collaboration, and generated actionable strategies ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit, IPCC AR7’s Special Report on Cities, and Innovate4Cities.

Participants in the UCCRN Climate Change and Cities Expert Meeting in Rio de Janeiro produced a statement on Scaling Up and Speeding Up: New Recommendations for Climate Action in Cities, which is also being translated into Portuguese and Spanish. The statement includes five urban climate action recommendations that identify effective entry-points for climate mitigation and adaptation interventions.

Building on the ARC3.3 process and the UCCRN Expert Meeting held last week, recommendations for urgently needed climate action in cities are:

1. Create a shift in mindset for climate change action in cities.

2. Foster innovative ways to connect multiple urban scales and systems from neighborhood to metropolitan regions.

3. Align and coordinate city actors, investments, and regulatory policies.

4. Co-create indicators, metrics, monitoring tools, and environmental sensing technologies for city-specific, multi-scalar, and multi-temporal learning on how to achieve resilient net-zero cities.

5. Deliver neighborhood climate action by testing innovative concepts bridging community priorities and climate science.

Please review UCCRN's statement on Scaling Up and Speeding Up: New Recommendations for Climate Action in Cities for the expanded version of the recommendations and the list of participants. https://biturl.top/Ubeiaq

View the full news article about the Expert Meeting on our website, https://uccrn.ei.columbia.edu/news/uccrn-climate-change-and-cities-expert-meeting

Looking forward, if you are attending the IPCC Scoping Meeting for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, please be in touch with the UCCRN Secretariat.

The Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) hosted a Rio G20 side event at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on March 27, 2024.

12/10/2023

What's happening at on December 11th?

Please see below for two fantastic Urban Climate Change Research Network-affiliated events! During the first session, we will soft-launch selected Elements (Special Reports) of UCCRN's Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3.3). We will share key urban research and policy takeaways from ARC3.3; something of value going into the IPCC AR7 Special Report on Cities.

During the second side event, we will join a panel discussion on National Adaptation Plan (NAP) strategies for vertical integration of NAPs at national, sub-national, and localized scales. This event is co-organized by the Columbia Climate School, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and more . . .

Launching ICLEI's Digitalization Policy Brief & Soft-Launching Selected Elements of UCCRN ARC3.3 (12/11/23)
Time: 10 AM - 11 AM GMT +4
Location: UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub Pavilion

Making National Adaptation Plans More Efficient: New Solutions to Bridge the NAP Gap (12/11/23)
Time: 3 PM - 4:30 PM GMT +4
Location: Side Event Room 9

You can visit the COP28 official website for live-streaming/video recording details.

11/28/2023

UCCRN @ COP28 🌍 -