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Urban centres of different sizes – especially cities – play a crucial role in managing global carbon emissions and reducing vulnerability to climate change. This overview paper draws on the papers in this issue (as well as a wider array of literature) to provide an analytical review of the carbon and climate relevance of urbanization and of some of the interactions between urbanization and global environmental change. The authors’ insights are used to inform a more general set of reflections on the nature of urban and environmental change, and the linkages between the two. Three over-arching themes are identified: the centrality of vulnerability and resilience as concepts shaping urban responses to climate change; the growing recognition of the role of specific governance mechanisms and systems at different scales in shaping the design and implementation of responses; and the particularities, cross-cutting issues …