Understanding the green-growth: which pathways cities undertake in their climate programs

Accounting for the 55% of global population and the 70% of global emissions cities are on the forefront of the climate change mitigation policies and have a pillar role in meeting global targets. The role of cities for a sustainable economy has become more urgent with the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting that cities cannot go back to business as usual. There are many policy options for city to address climate change, such as improving energy saving, reducing emissions, advocating low-carbon life. Cities need to find the appropriate low-carbon development pathways for their sustainable development, therefore, their actions must be tailored according to multiple criteria, including socio-economic factors, spillover effects, the structure of source of emissions, etc. The objective of this study is therefore to identify the most appropriate pathways cities should follow when designing their climate mitigation programs, accounting for their specific characteristics, including their carbon dioxide emissions. Using data from the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System 2020 and the Global Human Settlement Urban Centre database, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis identifies the configurations of city- and program-specific factors according to which urban climate actions set more ambitious climate goals in terms of emissions reduction. In this way, the study provides policy recommendations to local governments to select and support the most appropriate climate mitigation programs.