The world’s cities are heating up at twice the global average due to the urban heat island effect. At this rate, by 2100 many cities across the world could warm as much as 4 degrees Celsius.

Hotter cities could be catastrophic for public health. If the current trends in urbanization and increasing heat continue, it is expected that the urban population exposed to high temperatures – that is, average summertime highs above 35 ̊C – will increase 800 per cent to reach 1.6 billion by mid-century.

To tackle this issue, UNEP and RMI have prepared a new guide "Beating the Heat: A Sustainable Cooling Handbook for Cities" which offers planners an encyclopedia of proven options to help cool cities.

In your experience, what are the best approaches to make cities cooler and more liveable?

In Austria climate action revolutions public transport: fifteen years after it was first proposed, the new Klimaticket, or climate ticket, went live on October 26.

Offering seamless travel across all modes of public transport - for only 3 Euros per day - it is intended to galvanize the Alpine nation's fight against climate change.

"The Klimaticket Ö is more than just your ticket for all public transport. It is also the ticket with which we aim to reach the Paris climate goals together".

Good news for sustainable mobility! Will similar initiatives happen elsewhere?

Around the world, architects, activists and communities are finding ways to bring wildlife into urban areas. The wildflowers are thriving in urban areas as city councils decide to let grass grow wild. The world people are welcoming wildlife into cities, where more than half of us live. Here is a look at 10 of innovative urban biodiversity projects.

Melbourne Water’s Net Zero Future

Methodological guide for the inclusion of the NDC Ecuador at the Subnational level in territorial Planning - This publication is a product of the Climate Helpdesk technical assistance program which is led by the Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP), managed by LEDS LAC, and prepared by Grupo FARO under the supervision of the Consortium of Provincial Governments of Ecuador (CONGOPE). LEDS LAC is a network of organizations that work to facilitate the design and implementation of low-emission development strategies and the establishment of ambitious climate goals in Latin America and the Caribbean. CONGOPE is an institution specialized in capacity development for the public management of the Intermediate Provincial Governments, which contributes to strengthening the development processes of the provinces of Ecuador. Readers may reproduce this document as long as the source is recognized as follows: FARO Group. (2021). The methodological document "Guide for inclusion of the NDC Ecuador at the subnational level in territorial planning". Quito: FARO Group. The ideas in this document are the point of view of the authors and do not necessarily represent the institutional position of Grupo FARO on the subject. In this publication it has been chosen to use the generic masculine, understanding that all mentions in such a genre always represent women and men. This publication has been prepared with the financial support of LEDS LAC. This document’s content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of LEDS LAC.

San Francisco Greening its Streets

"What’s good for the city is good for the country," said Claudia López, mayor of Bogota making the case for electrifying mass transit to achieve climate goals. Together with Bogota, several other cities are rethinking their urban transport, from reviving electric tram lines to building cable cars. How do these cities make mass transit more attractive?

A Green Infrastructure 2035 Vision

Investments of about $280 billion will be needed to cope with the effects of climate change in 35 cities in South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia by 2050, new report by the Coalition for Urban Transitions shows. As the fastest urbanizing continent and the hardest hit by global warming, trillions of dollars of investment will be needed as a further 950 million people are expected to live in African cities by 2050.

The report concludes that the regulatory and financial framework and policy reforms are highly required to mobilize finance at scale and unlock investment in cities. Is it achievable?