Publications

Can low-carbon urban development be pro-poor? The case of Kolkata, India

Research article by Sarah Colenbrander, Andy Gouldson, Stephen Hall, N. Kerr, Andrew Sudmant, J. Roy, S. Sarkar, A. Ghatak, D. Chakravarty, D. Ganguly on 23 Dec 2016

Fast-growing cities in the global South have an important role to play in climate change mitigation. However, city governments typically focus on more pressing socioeconomic needs, such as reducing urban poverty. To what extent can social, economic and climate objectives be aligned? Focusing on Kolkata in India, we consider the economic case for low-carbon urban […]


Climate change mitigation in Chinese megacities: A measures-based analysis of opportunities in the residential sector

Research article by Andy Gouldson, Andrew Sudmant, Dabo Guan, Sarah Colenbrander, Q. Zhang on 23 Dec 2016

China’s commitment to the UNFCCC to peak its emissions by 2030, or sooner, signaled a long anticipated shift in China’s model of development with far reaching consequences. Cities in China, and particularly the residential sector in cities, will be charged with making significant reductions in emissions growth even as rates of urbanization continue to climb. […]


Cities and climate change mitigation: Economic opportunities and governance challenges in Asia

Research article by Andy Gouldson, Sarah Colenbrander, Andrew Sudmant, N. Kerr, Stephen Hall, Effie Papargyropolou on 1 May 2016

Cities are central to the fight against climate change, but the IPCC recently noted that many cities — and particularly those in the developing world — lack the institutional, financial and technical capacities needed to switch to low emission development paths. Based on detailed case studies of three Asian cities, this paper finds that the […]


Understanding the Case for Low-Carbon Investment through Bottom-up Assessments of City-Scale Opportunities

Research article by Andrew Sudmant, Andy Gouldson, Sarah Colenbrander, N. Kerr on 23 Feb 2016

A growing body of literature suggests that an economic case may exist for investment in large-scale climate change mitigation. At the same time, however, investment is persistently falling well short of the levels required to prevent dangerous climate change, suggesting that economically attractive mitigation opportunities are being missed. To understand whether and where these opportunities […]



The economic case for low carbon waste management in rapidly growing cities in the developing world: The case of Palembang, Indonesia

Research article by Sarah Colenbrander, Andrew Sudmant, Andy Gouldson on 5 Nov 2015

This study evaluates the carbon and economic performance of low-carbon measures in the waste sector at a city level, within the context of a developing country. Palembang in Indonesia is used as a case of a medium-sized city in a newly industrialized country, with relevance to other similar cities in the developing world.



The concept of city carbon maps: A case study of Melbourne, Australia

Research article by Thomas Wiedmann, John Barrett on 12 Oct 2015

Cities are thought to be associated with most of humanity’s consumption of natural resources and impacts on the environment. Cities not only constitute major centers of economic activity, knowledge, innovation, and governance—they are also said to be linked to approximately 70% to 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions. This makes cities primary agents of change […]