The topic for the 5th Urban Research Symposium was Cities and Climate Change: Responding to the Urgent Agenda. At a time when climate change is a major priority for the international community, this Symposium aimed to push forward the research agenda on climate change from a city’s perspective. The main questions were structured around the impacts of city and urban growth on climate change; measuring and anticipating the consequences of climate change on urban quality of life, city assets, and local and national economies; and assessing alternatives to increase the resilience of cities and related costs and incentives required for successful implementation.

The Symposium was structured around five broad research clusters which represented the most relevant issues faced by cities and peri-urban areas on climate change.

Cluster 1: Science and Indicators of Climate Change and Related Impacts: Understanding and measuring how cities impact, and are impacted by, climate change.

Cluster 2: Infrastructure, Built Environment, and Energy Efficiency: Planning efficiently and

effectively to increase the resilience of cities.

Cluster 3: Role of Institutions, Governance, and Urban Planning: Improving management, coordination, and planning of cities to meet climate change challenges.

Cluster 4: Incentive policies, economics and finance: Understanding how and why cities respond to climate change.

Cluster 5: Social aspects of climate change: Understanding and reducing vulnerability of urban populations to climate change.