[This is an excerpt from the Foreword of the editors team]
The intersection of cities, climate change science, and innovation represents one of the most critical challenges—and opportunities—of our time. At this nexus lies the complexity of managing the increasingly multifaceted impacts of climate change, necessitating bold governance, innovative solutions, and collaborative approaches (Walsh et al., 2022). This special issue collection of articles sheds light on the knowledge and research partners that cities need in order to catalyze the leading role they can play in addressing climate risks and opportunities for their communities. These case studies underscore the importance of practitioners contributing to academic discourse through lessons from on-the-ground action and informing science through policy-relevant, peer-reviewed publications—crucial contributions toward the upcoming IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (Bai, 2023, Solecki et al., 2024).
In collaboration with Innovate4Cities, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) initiative focused on research and innovation, this special issue set out in late 2023 to solicit and feature manuscripts led or co-authored by individuals working across cities and local government to present research and innovation case studies across a city’s climate action journey from a practitioner-led perspective. The special issue directly informs two critical outcomes: the biennial Innovate4Cities Conference co-hosted by GCoM and UN-Habitat and the flagship Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science (GRAA) and the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (Oke et al., 2022; Walsh et al., 2022).
With an explicit view to work with author teams led by or including a city practitioner, the guest editor team—representing the GCoM Secretariat, its Research and Innovation Technical Working Group, and knowledge partner Melbourne Centre for Cities—found the process of bringing practice-oriented work into a peer review journal rewarding (if not crucial) while also offering important lessons for the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy, particularly in considering future iterations with practitioners in a lead author role. The resulting papers reflect broad and deep climate action and knowledge being co-generated at the local scale and contributing to the GRAA—now updated to embody a systems approach following a comprehensive, evidence-driven update at the 2024 Innovate4Cities Conference—and we thank the authors for their contributions and patience with the process.