A comparative analysis of global city policies in climate change mitigation: London, New York, Milan, Mexico City and Bangkok

Global cities have emerged as major players on climate change issues. The paper considers five case studies (London, New York, Milan, Mexico City, Bangkok), with the aim of identifying main emission drivers at urban level and verify the coherence of urban mitigation strategies with local emission contexts. At this purpose, local emission inventories and mitigation plans of the five cities are compared through a set of city indicators. In all cases GHG emissions derive primarily from local energy uses. Transportation and energy uses in buildings are the most emitting sectors in all cities, with different weights in analyzed cases depending on specific conditions. City mitigation strategies and measures, though characterized by different time horizons, are coherent with local emission contexts. The need of standardized indicators and methodologies constitutes an area of future development and investigation.