Cities and Low Carbon Transitions

© 2011 Harriet Bulkeley, Vanesa Castán Broto, Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin. All rights reserved. Current societies face unprecedented risks and challenges connected to climate change. Addressing them will require fundamental transformations in the infrastructures that sustain everyday life, such as energy, water, waste and mobility. A transition to a 'low carbon' future implies a large scale reorganisation in the way societies produce and use energy. Cities are critical in this transition because they concentrate social and economic activities that produce climate change related emissions. At the same time, cities are increasingly recognised as sources of opportunities for climate change mitigation. Whether,…