Climate Change and Cities: First Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network

Urban areas are home to over half the world's people and are at the forefront of the climate change issue. The need for a global research effort to establish the current understanding of climate change adaptation and mitigation at the city level is urgent. To meet this goal a coalition of international researchers – the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) – was formed at the time of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York in 2007. This book is the First UCCRN Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities. The authors are all international experts from a diverse range of cities with varying socio-economic conditions, from both the developing and developed world. It is invaluable for mayors, city officials and policymakers; urban sustainability officers and urban planners; and researchers, professors and advanced students.

Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. She recently co-chaired the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the Mayor to advise the city on adaptation for its critical infrastructure. She co-led the Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. She was a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report, and served on the IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she joins impact models with climate models to predict future outcomes of both land-based and urban systems under altered climate conditions. She is a Professor at Barnard College and a Senior Research Scientist at the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

William Solecki is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Hunter College, City University of New York. He has led or co-led numerous projects on the process of urban environmental change and transformation. As Director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, he has worked extensively on connecting cutting-edge urban environmental science to everyday practice and action in cities. He most recently served as Co-Chair of the New York Panel on Climate Change. He is also a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Urban and Global Environmental Change core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme.

Stephen Hammer is the Executive Director of the Energy Smart Cities Initiative, a project of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), which runs energy and climate policy training and technical assistance programs for local governments around China. Stephen joined JUCCCE in January 2010 after serving as director of the Urban Energy Program at Columbia University's Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy. He has authored or co-authored dozens of policy studies and journal articles on urban sustainability planning, urban energy systems, distributed generation technology and the impacts of climate change on local and regional energy networks. In addition to his work at JUCCCE, Stephen is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, a member of New York City Mayor Bloomberg's Energy Policy Task Force, a consultant to the State of New York on microgrid and climate change adaptation issues, and a policy advisor on urban energy efficiency to the World Bank.

Shagun Mehrotra is Managing Director of Climate and Cities, an international policy advisor facility at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research. As a Columbia University Faculty Fellow, he provides research and policy advice focusing on infrastructure economics and finance, development economics and poverty reduction in slums. He has developed a comprehensive framework for city climate risk assessment that combines hazards, vulnerabilities and agency. Previously, Shagun was on the staff of the World Bank, leading infrastructure reform of state-owned utilities in Africa. Over the last decade, his advice has been sought by national and local governments in East Africa, South-East Asia, China and India, as well as the United Nations' Human Development Report, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Columbia Earth Institute. The President of India recently launched Shagun's co-authored book Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed, with a foreword by the Prime Minister of India.