City Climate Intelligence

Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Limit Global Warming and Climate Change

What is the City Climate Intelligence platform?

It’s the world’s first action-oriented, greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring platform for cities. It aims to unleash the transformative capacity of high-resolution, near real-time CO₂ monitoring to increase citizen buy-in, support decision-making, and drive CO₂ emissions reduction investments within cities.

Information concept Search on digital background

Why is it important?

Cities face a critical information gap for addressing the climate crisis and achieving net-zero emissions. They lack actionable data about how, where, and when GHG emissions are emitted in their communities.

Access to more frequent, localized, and cost-effective GHG emissions data along with targeted GHG emissions reduction insights would provide vital support to city climate action planning and decision-making—while also providing citizens with a tool for holding their governments accountable to climate commitments.

Every ton counts. Every year counts. Every data point counts.

How does the City Climate Intelligence platform help reduce emissions?

The next-generation platform will deliver near real-time, high-resolution GHG emissions data. This will help us move beyond standardized GHG emissions reporting and support actionable insights to reduce GHG emissions in our cities.

City Climate Intelligence will accelerate climate action in three ways:

1. High-resolution, Near Real-Time Estimates of City-Scale GHG Emissions: Our new science-based platform will generate accurate and cost-effective Scope 1 and 2 measurements for cities at the district/building/street levels and deliver them in near real-time.

2. Actionable Information Maps for City Managers and Citizens: Our platform will transform current practices through action-oriented mapping service delivery. This will include targeted insights to identify and recommend the top GHG mitigation opportunities/locations for each city via various GHG emissions reduction scenario simulations. In addition, it will provide a transparent platform for residents and community organizations to leverage community support in the fight against climate change.

3. Unlocking of Climate Finance and New Business Models: Delivering accurate and verifiable emissions data will help cities overcome the systemic barriers for fair access to climate finance and will significantly enable more collaboration between cities, businesses, and other institutions on joint climate action efforts and goals.

A science-based technology chain with user-centric design for impact driven use.

Our Plan

The City Climate Intelligence platform is currently in a development and piloting phase. During this phase, the team will work closely with city staff and community members in pilot cities around the world to prove the concept and develop the platform. These engagements will provide key insights to refine and optimize the platform for key user group needs and help define a future standardization framework.

“City Climate Intelligence opens up new possibilities for city managers to both renew the pace and narrative of the climate dialogue with citizens, NGOs, and businesses and to access actionable insights for higher impact climate decisions.”

Yann Françoise, City of Paris, deputy head and head of Climate department of Climate and Ecological Directorate, 2021 UN Global Climate Action Award Winner

Join City Climate Intelligence

As we scale the platform over time, we will be looking to engage with new cities for future phases of the initiative. Please contact us at cityclimateintelligence@rmi.org to inquire about participation opportunities and how the City Climate Intelligence initiative can bring real-time GHG insights to your city.