Planning Beyond 1.5°C at the Local Level

This joint policy brief by GCoM and ICLEI examines whether and how cities are planning not only to limit warming to 1.5°C, but also for the increasingly plausible conditions above that threshold. It combines a broad screening of 1,444 Climate Action Plans and related municipal documents across 495 cities with a focused review of 20 cases across Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe, and North America. Together, these two lenses show that many cities are moving beyond rhetorical references to 1.5°C toward operational use of higher-warming assumptions in risk assessment, adaptation planning, and local governance.