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Cities are hubs of global change, and
their global influence continues to grow. Cities contribute
significantly to global challenges like climate change and
biodiversity loss. At the same time, cities experience
impacts like climate change first and with greatest
intensity. Further, cities are becoming leaders worldwide in
efforts to address global environmental and social problems.
Some of the most important smaller-scale agreements and
partnerships emerging from Rio+20 (the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development) were initiated by or
focused on cities. Even as the conference reinforced the
increasing difficulty of reaching consensus on global
challenges, it also saw smaller-scale agreements and
partnerships emerge. Some of the most important
"microagreements" focused on cities.