SR Cities

SR Cities is the shorthand used in climate policy circles for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, scoped during the Seventh Assessment cycle (AR7). The IPCC Panel agreed during AR6 to produce a dedicated special report on cities, recognising that urban areas concentrate population, emissions, infrastructure, and climate vulnerability, and that previous assessment reports had treated urban issues only in scattered chapters.

The report is being prepared by IPCC Working Groups in collaboration, drawing on authors nominated by member governments and observer organisations. Its scoping meeting set out chapters covering urban mitigation pathways, adaptation and resilience, informal settlements, urban systems (energy, transport, buildings, water, waste), finance, and governance across multiple levels. The report is intended to be policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive, following standard IPCC practice.

SR Cities matters because cities account for a majority of global energy-related CO₂ emissions and host more than half the world's population, a share projected to rise. It is expected to inform:

• UNFCCC negotiations, particularly the Global Stocktake follow-up and discussions on subnational actors.
• Local government coalitions such as C40, ICLEI, and the Global Covenant of Mayors, which have lobbied for stronger recognition of cities in IPCC outputs.
• National Urban Policies and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that increasingly reference urban measures.

The report builds on prior IPCC work, including the urban chapter in the AR6 Working Group II report (Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure) and the AR6 Working Group III chapter on urban systems. It also draws on the 2018 CitiesIPCC scientific conference in Edmonton, which catalysed the research agenda that led to the special report's commissioning.

For MUN delegates, SR Cities is a useful citation in committees touching on UN-Habitat, sustainable urbanisation (SDG 11), climate finance for subnational actors, and loss and damage in urban contexts.