Cities are pledging to take climate action in growing numbers. But are they on track to deliver their goals? An analysis from Data-Driven Lab, published in Nature Climate Change, finds that 60 percent of 1,000 European cities are on track to achieve their 2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

A new Climate Policy article, which includes Data-Driven EnviroLab Director Angel Hsu and Research Associate Amy Weinfurter among its authors, finds that emissions reductions from 17 climate initiatives would help put the world on course to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals of preventing global temperatures from rising more than 2C.

Explore disparities in Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity (SUHI) in all 497 urbanized areas in the U.S in our new Google Earth Engine app. Read more about the dataset development in our new paper, “A spatially explicit surface urban heat island database for the United States: Characterization, uncertainties, and possible applications,” led by T.C. Chakraborty.

The Urban Environment and Social Inclusion Index (UESI) — the first spatially explicit Index measuring how cities around the world perform on environmental issues like climate change, air quality, public transport, and green space — now includes more than 160 cities. 

Regions, cities, and businesses operating within ten of the world’s major emitting economies could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 3.5-5.5 percent in 2030, compared with the emissions expected from current national policies, according to a new article co-authored by Data-Driven Lab in Climate Policy.

Featuring 8 nodes, 21 prompts, and 350 participants, the Collabathon convened experts from a range of backgrounds to develop radical technological solutions to some of the most intractable issues in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

A new Nature Sustainability paper explains how citizen science can help fill data gaps and further the SDG reporting process at the global, national, and subnational level.

A new report finds 10 high-emitting economies could meet or overachieve their pledged greenhouse gas emissions cuts with help from cities, regions and businesses. 

A new paper in Climate Policy uses quantitative text analysis to explore how national governments incorporate city, region, company & civil society climate action into their international climate commitments.

A new Nature Climate Change Perspectives piece outlines ways to better account for the greenhouse gas emissions reductions from climate action by local governments, the private sector, and civil society.

The Sept. 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, CA engaged more than 5,000 cities, states, regions, companies, investors and civil society organizations on climate change. Hundreds of commitments were made, but does it add up to something beyond action already pledged?