The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report underscores that it is still possible to achieve the 1.5-degree-target, but only if unprecedented action is taken now. To have a chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, global emissions must halve by 2030 and reach ‘net-zero’ by 2050. Multilevel action is the new normal: At a historic first, the Glasgow Climate pact of the UN COP26 recognized the importance of local communities, including indigenous people and civil society in its preamble. To support local decision making for ambitious urban decarbonization, digital tools need to capture the complexity of the urban system and have to be structured in a cohesive framework which provides the interfaces between data, urban scale modeling and powerful visualisation and gamified interfaces to engage multiple stakeholders.
Decarbonization strategies for the different sectors within urban areas will be discussed together with barriers and opportunities to accelerate the transformation process.
