The beauty of cities is that every city is different. From the homogenizing perspective of global environmental change that speaks trouble. We need an understanding of which kind of cities can contribute what kind of measures to mitigate and adapt to global environmental change. Typologies of cities offer a bridge between the idiosyncratic and the global. Bounoua et al (2015 Environ. Res. Lett.10 084010) analyse the impact of urbanization on surface climate. We discuss their results and suggest avenues for further systematic analysis.