Planet under Pressure: New Knowledge towards Solutions
March 26-29 | London, UK
UGEC sponsored and supported sessions
State of the world’s cities: an overview of interactions between cities and global environmental change
Day 1: State of the Planet
Theme: Meeting Global Needs
Conveners
- Richard Dawson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research/School Civil Eng. & Geosciences, Newcastle University, UK(richard.dawson@newcastle.ac.uk)
- Shobhakar Dhakal, Global Carbon Project (GCP), National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan(shobhakar.dhakal@nies.go.jp)
- Patricia Romero-Lankao, Institute for the Study of Society and Environment, NCAR, USA(prlankao@ucar.edu)
- Karen C. Seto, Yale University, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, USA (karen.seto@yale.edu)
- William Solecki, Hunter College – City University of New York (CUNY), Institute for Sustainable Cities, USA(wsolecki@hunter.cuny.edu)
Session abstract
Now that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, understanding the bidirectional interactions of global environmental change and urban areas is increasingly more important. Cities and their urban dwellers are responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource consumption. Their concentration of population and infrastructure makes them hotspots of vulnerability to the impacts of extreme events. Many cities are serious global economic players: 34 of the top 100 economies are cities and they are often better placed to respond to global issues at a local level as they can provide more direct communication between citizens and policy makers.
The objective of this session is to present a comprehensive assessment of the current understanding of pressures on cities the pressures they in turn place on the planet. The session therefore seeks contributions from a diverse range of fields that seek to understand these pressures, including but not limited to: climate change impacts analysis, urban teleconnections, sustainability appraisal, urban metabolism and other themes. The session will feature keynote speakers from global initiatives such as the IHDP Urban and Global Environmental Change programme, the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) and its First Assessment Report on Climate Change in Cities (ARC3), lead authors of UN-HABITAT Reports, lead authors of the IPCC AR5 who focus on the urban theme, the World Bank Global Cities Indicator Facility, and the Global Carbon Project among others.
UGEC-endorsed session
Risk and opportunity in urban coasts
Day 2: Options and Opportunities
Theme: Tranforming our Way of Living
Conveners
- Mark Pelling, King’s College London, UK(mark.pelling@kcl.ac.uk)
- Jim Hall, Oxford University, UK
Session abstract
The coincident drivers of changes in the coastal zone – globalization, urbanization and consumption – continue to intensify. The LOICZ session will exchange knowledge about the scale of risk entrained within existing urbanization trends and urban governance practices and explore ways of reducing the pressures on coastal environments and ecosystems and associated human health and wellbeing concerns including those associated with extreme events. In particular the session will aim to identify the limits to existing technology and governance practices for monitoring and adapting to current and projected risk on the coast and through this begin to outline and promote pathways for transformative changes for a sustainable future, including focus on the merits of protection, retreat and abandonment of urban places and tensions between climate change adaptation and mitigation targets with demands for economic growth as they play out in coastal cities. Cases from richer and poorer country contexts will be considered. The session will draw from and feed into the IPCC 5th Assessment report chapter on urban issues. It also builds on a wider project led by LOICZ seeking to explore a ‘global innovation system’ to respond to the implications of the increasing rates of change in the drivers of global change in the coastal zone. The session will contribute to these initiatives most explicitly by providing a forum for multi-disciplinary and science-policy making interaction.
Urbanization as an opportunity for a sustainable future
Day 2: Options and Opportunities
Theme: Tranforming our Way of Living
Conveners
- Richard Dawson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and School Civil Eng. & Geosciences, Newcastle University, UK(richard.dawson@newcastle.ac.uk)
- Darryn McEvoy, Global Cities Institute, RMIT University, Australia (darryn.mcevoy@rmit.edu.au)
- Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico (roberto@ucr.edu)
- William Solecki, Hunter College – City University of New York (CUNY), Institute for Sustainable Cities, USA(wsolecki@hunter.cuny.edu)
Session abstract
In the context of a rapidly urbanizing planet, responses to pressures within urban areas are increasingly more important. The development of cities and their populations will define the outcome of novel urban-environmental interactions. Proper planning, decision making, and policy choices are needed to pave the way towards a sustainable future. As an increasing number of cities around the world have begun to develop responses through climate change mitigation, adaptation and development actions, we are faced with the challenge of how to best analyze and synthesize the growing number of case studies in order to better understand the complexities of the responses. Global megacities, in particular, have emerged as important strategic entities for sustainability.
The session will present a synthesis of advances in knowledge of urban responses to global environmental pressures. The contributors will present a cross-regional synthesis of our knowledge on the diversity of urban responses to global environmental change and pressures. The session will review options and opportunities to reduce the urban footprint and the pressure of drivers of global environmental change on cities. Contributions will include methodological and conceptual challenges in reducing these pressures, case studies showcasing the results of different strategies in particular highlighting opportunities for win-win or identification of tradeoffs in the implementation of strategies etc.
The session will feature speakers from the IHDP Urban and Global Environmental Change programme, the Australian National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, the German Megacities Research Programmes and the UK’s Adaptation Sub-Committee among others.
Urban governance challenges for sustainability and global environmental change
Day 3: Challenges to Progress
Theme: Tranforming our Way of Living
Conveners
- JoAnn Carmin, Environmental Policy and Planning, MIT, USA(jcarmin@mit.edu)
- Shu-Li Huang, Graduate Institute of Urban Planning National Taipei University, Taiwan(shuli@mail.ntpu.edu.tw)
- Shuaib Lwasa, Makerere University, Uganda(lwasa_s@arts.mak.ac.ug)
- Heike Schroeder, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, UK(heike.schroeder@ouce.ox.ac.uk)
- David Simon, Royal Holloway University of London, UK(D.Simon@rhul.ac.uk)
Session abstract
Urbanization is a major component of global environmental change (GEC), while at the same time GEC poses threats to urban areas. World-wide challenges such as increases in surface temperature, accelerated sea level rise, and biodiversity loss pose particular threats to urban areas due to their location and concentration of people and resources. As such, urban areas are critical elements in the transition to global sustainability and for societal capacities to respond effectively to a variety of GEC impacts and stresses.
The session aims to review the challenges and barriers to progress in implementing sustainable urban transitions and offer a vision over sustainable urban futures through new conceptualizations of good urban governance in an era of GEC. We need a better understanding of the existing or projected global challenges in terms of capacity, financing, diversity, security, authority, responsibility sharing and coordination, participatory approaches and network building. What is the role of inertia, policy mismatches across scales, resistance from special interest groups, and uncertainty in constraining responses to GEC? Can interventions in the governance dimensions of architecture, agency, adaptiveness, accountability, access and allocation assist urban areas in their sustainability transitions?
Presenters and participants will provide a cross-regional outlook and a synthesis of research and practice findings on governance challenges that have emerged in the past decades through distinct academic and practitioner communities. The session is a collaborative effort by two core projects of the IHDP: the ‘Urbanization and Global Environmental Change’ (UGEC) and the ‘Earth System Governance’ (ESG) project.