Climate Change and Urban Economy

3:00 - 4:45 PM EDT

Topic: Low Carbon Inclusion: Establishment of Canada Climate Action Foyer

Cities and towns are on the frontlines of managing the response to climate change. They have to balance both the short-term need to protect inhabitants and manage climate-related disasters, as well as the long-term challenges to make cities more low-carbon, resilient and inclusive. 



 Climate change related disasters are poised to have a disproportionate impact on populations that are already vulnerable: for instance, low-income, informal settlements households often have increased exposure to climate risks and they also have a lower capacity to recover from damages, as they often lack access to insurance systems and safety nets. 

 

With this context in mind, this panel will examine how local policies for climate change and environmental sustainability are applying explicit equity and social inclusion lenses. How are cities approaching this dual challenge? What dimensions of inclusion are prioritised in cities’ plans? In what areas and policy sectors will cities focus on the necessity and challenges of creating accessible, just, fair and inclusive low carbon approaches, policies and solutions along with community-based participatory engagement.


The session will also focus on sustainable consumption and low carbon futures; a ‘15-minute city 'perspective; a shared and just climate resilient city mobilised around ‘community’; the role of urban food initiatives in transitioning to more equitable low carbon cities; and low carbon urban design and affordable housing. In other words, how can a paradigm shift take place by putting people, planet and peace as priority.

Speakers

Moderator of the Session

Anitra Nelson

  • Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia

    I am an activist-scholar affiliated with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Most of my academic activities coincide with my political and philosophical interests.


    In August 2020 Pluto Press (London) published a degrowth book that I co-authored with Vincent Liegey — Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide. I also co-edited a degrowth collection with Ferne Edwards (NTNU, Norway), which was published in the Routledge Environmental Humanities series in late 2020 — Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices.


    In 2019 I was Chair of the Organising Committee of the Australian New Zealand Society of Ecological Economics ANZSEE 2019 Conference — Ecological Economics: Solutions Now and in the Future, 24–26 November, hosted by the RMIT University Centre for Urban Research (CUR), which I was affiliated with at that time. (I was at RMIT University for more than 21 years before joining MSSI.)


    My book on eco-collaborative housing, Small Is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet, was published by Pluto Press (London) in 2018. I am associated with the international Eco-Communites in an Urban Future project, working on a chapter for a collection edited by Jenny Pickerill (University of Sheffield, UK). I am active in the Planning Working Group of Cohousing Australia. I am writing a chapter with Paul Chatterton for Post-Growth Planning: Cities Beyond the Market Economy and edited by Federico Savini, António Ferreira and Kim Carlotta von Schönfeld, due out late 2021.


    Pluto published Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011), a nonmarket socialist collection that I co-edited with the late Frans Timmerman. Currently, I am writing a sole-authored book on the topic for publication by Pluto Press early 2022.


    Degrowth advocate Francois Schneider and I launched the Routledge Environmental Humanities series collection that we co-edited — Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities after its publication 3 August 2018, embarking on a European tour of the book — see schedule.


    As the series editor, I am calling for book proposals for the new Palgrave Macmillan series — Alternatives and Futures: Cultures, Practices, Activism and Utopias. We have several proposals in the pipeline and expect the series to become established in print in 2021. I am a series editors for the Pluto Press FireWorks series, which launched in 2020 with three titles.

Aimee Ambrose

  • Professor, Energy Policy at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University & Alvaro Castano Garcia, PhD Candidate at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University

    I am a Professor of Energy Policy in CRESR where I have worked for the last ten years. Since June 2019 I have also acted as Chief Academic Advisor to the International Energy Agency in relation to research into hard to reach energy users. I am also currently a visiting researcher at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University in Sweden. 

Jan Malý Blažek

  • Specialist, Department of Environmental Studies (Faculty of Social Studies), Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia

    Jan Malý Blažek is an economist and social geographer who researches and teaches in the Department of Environmental Studies (Faculty of Social Studies), Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia. Recent publications include co-editing and co-authoring How to Design a City for Life (Prague: Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 2021), which incorporates his approach to a shared, resilient and just city. He interrogates the potential of community initiatives in creating low-carbon cities and the importance of transforming not only technical infrastructures but also social and economic structures. His current project, through participatory action research in six cities, explores the potential and limits of sustainable and affordable participatory housing in the Czech Republic 

Ferne Edwards

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

    Dr. Ferne Edwards has a background in cultural anthropology and works across disciplines including geography, design, health, and planning. She has extensive international research experience specialising in sustainable cities, food systems and social change. Ferne has conducted research in Australia, Venezuela, Ireland and Spain on food waste, urban beekeeping, non-monetised alternative food economies, and food sharing, contributing to more than 30 publications on urban natures, conservation, design, and healthy and resilient cities. Ferne is also highly active in running international collaborative networks and events: she led the governance work package for the EU Horizon 2020 IA project EdiCitNet to establish an international edible cities network; she is an UrbanA Fellow for Just and Sustainable Cities, Awards Director for ‘Why the World Needs Anthropologists’, Review Editor for Frontiers Journal, and an Australian Anthropology Society Fellow. Ferne has recently co-edited two books: ‘Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices’ with Anitra Nelson (Routledge, December 2020) and ‘Food, Senses and the City’ (Routledge, 2021) with Roos Gerritsen and Grit Wesser

Lucie Vidovićová

  • Vice-President, RC11 Sociology of Ageing at the International Sociological Association (ISA) & Sociologist/Social Gerontologist at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia

    Dr. Lucie Vidovićová (*1977 in Brno, Czech Rep.) is a sociologist. Her long-term research interests include the sociology of ageing, age discrimination, active ageing, and social exclusion. She is also involved in research projects in the field of environmental gerontology, social policy, labor market, family, and lifelong learning. She conducts research for national as well as European bodies and works as a consultant on a number of implementation projects. Lucie also cooperates with different governmental and NGO bodies in the field of senior advocacy. She was part of the UNECE Task Force for ageing-related statistics and serves as a Vice-president on the Executive Committee of RC 11 Sociology of Aging at the International Sociological Association. Since 2016, she also serves as a co-leader of a working group on spatial exclusion within the ROSEnet COST Action. Recent projects in which she has been involved include surveys of the labour market conditions of older workers and their impact on retirement decisions (DetREU), MOPACT (Extending working lives: raising the employment of older workers, aided by lifelong learning), and those on older consumers, age discrimination, ageing in big cities and rural areas, the issue of role overload in active ageing grandparents, and the use of humanoid robots in for the active ageing programmes (all the latter as a principal investigator). Starting in 2019, she leads the GENDER-Net cofund research consortium “GENPATH: A life course perspective on the gendered pathways of exclusion from social relations in later life, and its consequences for health and wellbeing."

Ralph Horne

  • Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation for the College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

    Ralph Horne is Professor of Geography and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation for the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT University. He is interested in social and policy change to support sustainable urban development, and has a specific research interest in low carbon urban transitions, housing and households. He combines research leadership and participation in research projects concerning the environmental, social and policy context of production and consumption in the urban environment.

Funto Boroffice

  • CEO & Founder, Chanja Datti Ltd

    Ms. Funto Boroffice is the founder/CEO of award winning Chanja Datti Ltd, a waste collection & recycling social enterprise dedicated not only to transforming the waste in her environment to value and Quidroo, a fintech startup looking at provide access to working capital for Nigeria SMEs, especially women-owned SMEs. She graduated with a Masters’ degree in Financial Management from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business in New York, and has a Bachelors’ degree in Accounting and Finance from Northeastern University in Boston where she graduated cum laude (with honors). She is a founding member and Vice President of the Recycling Association of Nigeria (RAN), founder of Initiative for the Advancement of Waste Management in Africa (aka W.A.S.T.E Africa), an alumni of the several prestigious local and international programs and sits on several boards.

Alberto Luiz Francato

  • Director, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Campinas, Brazil

    Graduated in Civil Engineering by the EESC-USP (1994), Master in Civil Engineering in Water Resources (1997), Phd in Water Resources (2002) by the FEC-UNICAMP, Full Professor in Energy and Electric Systems Planning FEC-UNICAMP (2014). Professor MS5.1-RDIDP the FEC-UNICAMP, working in undergraduate courses in Civil Engineering and Architecture. In graduate has operations in the Graduate Program of the FEC with the Department of Water Resources, in Water Resources, Energy and Environmental, teaching courses and guiding academic papers. He has served 22 years in the field of Water and Energy Resources, highlighting the operational planning of hydro systems and analysis of water supply systems. It has also worked on research projects assisted by CNPq, FAPESP, CTNERG and R & D ANEEL. Responsible for coordinating the undergraduate course in Civil Engineering at FEC-UNICAMP from January 2011 to October 2014. Associate Director of FEC / Unicamp from November 2014 to October 2018. From November 2018 took over the direction of FEC-UNICAMP. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)

Gordon Walker

  • Professor, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    My research interests have moved around over time but have centred on the social, spatial, temporal and normative dimensions of environment, sustainability, climate and risk issues.


    I am currently focussing on working with rhythmanalysis in new ways, realising some of its multidisciplinary potential and applying it to questions of energy, climate change, pollution and health. The book 'Energy and Rhythm: Rhythanalysis for a Low Carbon Future' was published in April 2021 and there is a support website for the book and related work, including applying rhythmanalysis to conceptualising heat vulnerability and urban air pollution. See http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/energyandrhythm/


    This new theme of work emerged out of my role as Co-Director of the RCUK funded DEMAND Centre (Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand) from 2012-18. I was involved in projects within the Centre's research programme on how energy is related to notions of need, rights and justice; on the work of energy managers in non-domestic settings using smart metering technologies and demand side response systems; on the dynamics of energy use in everyday life; and integration activities across the consortium of academic and non-academic partners.

Alvaro Castano Garcia 

  • PhD student, the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom

    Alvaro Castano Garcia is a PhD student in the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University. His main research interest centres on social justice issues in low-carbon energy transitions. He is currently focusing on three different strands within this research area: high consumers, just transitions and public engagement in energy transitions. Alvaro holds a BSc in Environmental Science (Sheffield Hallam University), a PGDip in Sustainability and Adaptation (Centre for Alternative Technology) and a MRes in Social Science (Sheffield Hallam University). His research is supported by the White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership. 

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