We investigated the 'local' and 'global' similarity of vertical turbulent transfer of heat, water vapour, and CO2 within an urban surface layer. The results were derived from field measurements in a residential area of Tokyo, Japan during midday on fair-weather days in July 2001. In this study, correlation coefficients and quadrant analysis were used for the evaluation of 'global' similarity and wavelet analysis was employed for investigating 'local' similarity. The correlation coefficients indicated that the transfer efficiencies of water vapour and CO2 were generally smaller than that of heat. Using wavelet analysis, we found that heat is always efficiently transferred by thermal and organized motions. In contrast, water vapour and CO2, which are passive quantities, were not transferred as efficiently as heat. The quadrant analyses showed that the heat transfer by ejection exceeded that by sweep, and the ratios of ejection to sweep for water vapour and CO2 transfer were less than that for heat. This indicated that heat is more efficiently transferred by upward motions and supported the findings from wavelet analysis. The differences of turbulent transfer between heat and both CO2 and water vapour were probably caused both by the active role of temperature and the heterogeneity in the source distribution of scalars.