Climate change transformation: A definition and typology to guide decision making in urban environments

•A new definition of ‘climate change transformation’ and an accompanying typology is presented.•Climate change transformation is defined to include: 1) the explicit coordination of adaptation and mitigation actions.•2) a new regime of 1.5 degrees Celsius (only) of warming by 2100.•3) sufficient actions to be well adapted to this new regime.•The definition and typology aim to guide climate change decision making in the built environment. Climate change presents a threat to the sustainability of cities and their societies, and must be adequately addressed. Urban environments (cities) are responsible for the creation of a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions which are the source of climate change. Cities have been increasingly the focus of action to address climate change, yet emissions are not significantly reducing. Additionally, there a lack of integration between adaptation and mitigation. This prevents responses adequate to limit global warming to 1.5OC, and to be well adapted to anticipated changes. This paper critically analyses existing definitions and typologies of climate change actions. A definition of ‘climate change transformation’ is proposed which includes the integration of adaptation and mitigation goals to enable a new regime in which global warming is limited to 1.5OC. A new three-part typology: ‘coping, malaction and transformation,’ is presented for categorising climate change actions by the extent to which they integrate adaptation and mitigation, and define a new regime. The typology is accompanied by illustrations to demonstrate the relationship between adaptation and mitigation. The definition, typology and illustration serve to guide effective climate change decision making, and provides principles to guide application in urban environments.