8 While the Conference of the Parties wrangle at an international scale with climate policy, a quiet and effective 9 set of policies and measures is being implemented at a local scale by municipalities across the globe. This study 10 examines the motivation municipalities have for undertaking policies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, when 11 the theory of free-riding would predict that...

Notes how rapid urbanization is transforming the developing world ± creating cities, which on the one hand offer opportunities for global economic activity, but on the other hand are beset with serious local civic, economic and social problems. New networks based on information and communication technologies are increasingly being woven into the fabric of these cities supporting the connectedne...

Urban areas consume more than 66% of the world's energy and generate more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the world's population expected to reach 10 billion by 2100, nearly 90% of whom will live in urban areas, a critical question for planetary sustainability is how the size of cities affects energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Are larger cities more energy and emi...

Using ethnographic methods, 28 young professionals across the global cities of London, Los Angeles, and Tokyo were studied to understand in some detail what items they carried with them (their mobile kits) and how they used these items to access people, places, and services (through various urban interfaces). The findings are analyzed in terms of these cities as existing sites of ubiquitous inf...

Six English cities were designated by the UK Government as science cities in 2004 and 2005, with the intention that local consortia develop strategies for the realisation of this vision. Previous definitions of science cities are explored to show how the concept has evolved over time, with the English initiative placed within a global context to show how it adapts previous models to the specifi...

Locally motivated air quality programs have only minor collateral benefits for the global climate. If agencies with global and local agendas did business together, then individuals and firms — and even cities — would act globally when thinking locally, and one would see greater synergy.

Globalization and market reforms have significantly facilitated urban transition and urbanization in the People’s Republic of China, greatly affecting the structural and spatial redistribution of Chinese cities since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. Prior to the 1978 economic reforms, the system of cities created by the Maoist regime was dominated by large and extra-large cities b...

Helping cities to function more effectively and efficiently is one of the best ways to achieve global sustainability goals. Such improvements can come from new technologies, new information, or new management practices. This paper focuses on ways that cities can benefit from collaborations involving nonmunicipal levels of government, private companies, nongovernmental organizations, and univers...

[email protected] Globalization impacts urban dynamics. Some cities more than others have taken advantage of globalization to become real poles of economic and cultural development or to reinforce their position as major world cities. Other cities have had more difficulties in jumping into the new global economy and are still struggling with the ghosts of their industrial pasts. Between t...

Wuhan and Pittsburgh, as a pair of Sino-US sister cities, are both important industrial cities of their countries in the history. Since 1970, Pittsburgh gradually transformed itself from an industrial city to a post-industrial city, impressively solved its pollution problems and became one of the most livable cities in the U.S. However, over the past decades, which may be called the global era,...