The most recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released earlier this year issued a dire warning about the growing threats posed to people and ecosystems if urgent — if not immediate — action is not taken on climate change. But the report also outlined where mitigation — particularly in urban areas — could provide hope for meaningful climate action.

Two vice chairs and seven authors from the recent IPCC report came together at the annual Hixon Center Urban Conference , a gathering of researchers and practitioners focused on the potential impacts that cities have on climate change around the world, held on September 23 at the Yale School of the Environment. The conference is convened jointly by the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology and the Yale Planetary Solutions Project. 

Topics of discussion included green infrastructure, public transportation, energy demand, and urban forests — “a climate mitigation buffet,” said Karen Seto, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at YSE and one of two coordinating authors of the urban mitigation chapter of the IPCC report.

“There are a variety of different options available [for mitigation]. There are enormous opportunities, but also challenges,” said Seto during the conference’s closing remarks.