Urban Climate Action and Overshoot

Current emissions trajectories are steering the world toward a period of overshoot, which includes the exceedance of the 1.5°C temperature limit (now likely by the end of the decade) and the need to return to warming levels of 1.5°C (ideally by the end of the century). In this context, cities need to cope with compounded risks, heightened uncertainty, and the increasing likelihood of approaching or even exceeding adaptation limits. At the same time, city mitigation activities will need to expand, and the role of cities in achieving net-negative emissions will need to be explored. All of this will have to take place in the context of continued poverty, inequality and informality in many cities, with major consequences for human wellbeing. This calls for more integrated, forward looking, and collaborative responses.

Building on the UNEP Overshoot report, I4C26 provides a timely platform to zoom in on overshoot as a central concept with impacts for urban climate governance, innovation, and partnerships. The session will serve to advance a shared understanding of what overshoot means for cities; and how urban actors can govern, plan and collaborate under these conditions.