URCM Initiative

URCM addresses some of the most fundemental scientific issues related to carbon management:

• How do urbanization and the global carbon cycle interact globally through population, affluence, energy and other biophysical and socio-economic mechanisms?
• How can we quantify current and past carbon emissions/sinks in cities and regions? What are the future scenarios of decarbonized urban and regional development?
• What configurations of underlying and proximate drivers (geography, socio-economic factors, historical legacies/trajectories etc.) explain the differences in carbon trajectories of cities?
• What international strategies will best support carbon mitigation and adaptation in cities?
  • What are the possible synergies and trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation measures in urban and regional development?
  • What are the roles of the institutions and carbon governance structures in sound urban and regional carbon management?
• How can low-carbon urban development enhance resilience of communities in the face of climate change and other increasing uncertainties and complexities?
• What are the key indicators of a low-carbon, climate-resilient urban environment? How can these indicators be incorporated into an integrated assessment model that could facilitate progress toward an urban environment featuring such characteristics?

Implementation of URCM

• Synthesizing studies to provide a comprehensive and holistic policy relevant picture of urban and regional carbon management
• Facilitating the initiation of pioneering research within the URCM framework where major gaps exist
• Organizing conferences and workshops to build a scientific community for URCM
• Bringing scientific understanding to policy discussions through science-policy dialogue
• Developing partnerships with other scientific and policy communities

• URCM Pamphlet (2014) (PDF, 1.5 MB)

The GCP Tsukuba International Office organizes seminars, workshops and symposiums on URCM-related topics, bringing together researchers, experts and policy makers to share the latest findings, discuss issues, and build and strengthen the networks.

• Past events