Urban responses to climate change in Italy

Coordinated actions at urban level are necessary for promoting a low carbon economy and a greener and more efficient use of resources in compliance with the EU's integrated climate change and energy policy. Several initiatives have been undertaken at European level in the latest years to support local authorities moving towards more sustainable development patterns, reducing urban GHG emissions and making cities more resilient to climate change. Smart cities are at the heart of this process and their efforts are driven by a large number of initiatives such as the SET-Plan “Smart Cities and Communities Initiative” and the Covenant of Mayors. In Italy, at now 2180 towns and cities have signed up to the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) committing to submit their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). In the meanwhile several independent initiatives have been carried out on smart-related issues by local governments boosted also by two calls for bids on smart cities issued in 2012 by the Italian Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research. This paper investigates the 32 Italian cities included in the EUROSTAT Urban Audit database providing an overview of their involvement in climate networks and cities’ alliances and analyzing and comparing the urban planning and strategic policy documents related to climate change actions, i.e. adaptation or mitigation. Mitigation plans in the analyzed cities are further investigated through cluster analysis to aggregate cities in homogenous groups as concerns policy strategies and mitigation actions.