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Climate Change & Cities Workshop

Held on 31st May 2012, 14:30-17:00

Location G07, Pearson Building 

The UCL Environment Institutehosted a half day workshop on 31st May 2012; 2-5pm with Professor Sue Parnell, who is one of the editors of “Climate Change at the City Scale: Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation in Cape Town” (click on image to purchase)

Sue Parnell Book

The chapters of the book draw from research that was commissioned from specialists under a partnership known as the “Cape Town Climate Change Think Tank”. Cape Town has long been acknowledged as an innovator in the area of urban environmental management. Few Southern cities have been as proactive or as  successful as Cape Town in putting issues of global environmental change at the core of their governance philosophy and practice. As a highly unequal coastal city with limited resources to manage the demand for a more resilient and equitable future, the Cape Town response to climate change challenges presents an especially provocative case study of the challenges of urban transformation in the context of climate change.

Professor Parnell gavea short 30 min presentation on “'Climate at the City Scale - reflections on the co-production of knowledge for local action from the Cape Town Climate Think Tank” The Climate Think Tank brought together consultants, academics, activists and city administrators in an effort to establish a credible and locally useful evidence base to inform climate action in the City. The partnership was not without its stresses, but the 'Think Tank' established not only new local knowledge that has already informed action in the local authority, it also established an epistemic community of climate change leadership across the city region. Working in areas as diverse as climate science, legal reform, energy modelling and institutional and organizational change the findings of the first phase of the think Tank are to be published by Routledge (Earthscan) in May 2012. This talk presents highlights from the book and provides critical reflection on one cities' collective experiences in responding to climate change.

We also invited Pete Daw, Policy & Programmes Manager ‐ Climate Change Mitigation & Energy Development & Environment, Greater London Authority; Doug McNab, Sustainability Officer in Planning Environment and Regeneration, Islington
Council and Paula Vandergert, Sustainability Research Fellow, Sustainability Research Institute, University of East London to form a panel in responseto Sue's presentation.