2. Co-benefits Assessment Tools and Research Gaps

Climate change and urban areas bear a symbiotic relationship. Research in the causes and impact of climate change has witnessed widespread growth since the 1980s and 90s, while cities have recently started taking interest in acknowledging their role towards climate. The co-benefits approach helps to guide interventions that are at the crossroads of climate action, development needs and improvement of local environment. There are numerous tools or models that are available to estimate climate, local environment and development co-benefits in urban areas. The aim of this chapter is to have a fair understanding of theoretical literature on generating and estimating co-benefits in this inter-disciplinary area by reviewing available assessment tools, and in the process, identify the grey zones or research gaps. The study reports in detail on 44 tools of different kinds—database, evaluation and simulation, across both mitigation and adaptation areas. It identifies the conceptual, methodological, empirical and policy-governance gaps in systematic evaluation of urban co-benefits. The chapter recommends how future research tools could lead to effective estimation of co-benefits through assimilation of concepts, methodical analysis, inclusion of available, reliable and comparable data, and science-policy applications. The findings can find pertinence to governments, policy-makers, researchers and practitioners alike as they help frame a new paradigm to ascertain co-benefits in the inter-disciplines of climate change and urban studies.