Aligning climate and health goals in cities from a sustainability perspective

Francesco Fuso-Nerini is Associate Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockhom and Director of KTH Climate Action Centre. His focus is on addressing multi-disciplinary sustainable development related issues – including how future climate change and action, energy choices, and AI will affect the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Francesco has worked at several leading institutions on energy and climate issues, such as University College London, the International Energy Agency, the Payne Institute for Public Policy, and Melbourne University.

Tara Keck is Professor of Neuroscience at UCL Division of Biosciences and Vice-Dean (International) in the Faculty of Life Sciences at UCL. Her research focuses on the neuroscience of healthy ageing and ageing related diseases, with her recent work considering the role of loneliness and mental health in healthy ageing. She has worked in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region to characterise risk factors and potential interventions for loneliness in older people, with consideration for the role of environment, both built and natural. Her work broadly examines the interactions of mental health with community and how these communities can be harnessed to address the SDGs in a sustainable way. She is an Expert Member of the UNFPA’s International Advisory Panel on Population and Development.

Kate Roll is a political scientist and Associate Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, where her research looks at the intersection of technology, development and sustainability. Recent work has focused on understanding the politics of the SDGs and how they can be incorporated into policy. In 2021, Dr Roll established the UK hub for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN UK), a network of universities supported by the United Nations. As Chair of SDSN UK, she co-led research for the UN Global Compact Network’s Measuring Up 2.0 report, a fresh review of the UK’s performance against the 17 UN SDGs and their associated targets.

Sarah Chaytor is Director of Research Strategy & Policy in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research) at UCL, and leads UCL Public Policy which aims to better translate research into the policy sphere, as well as working on a number of areas around research funding and policy. She has a keen interest in the science-policy interface and in understanding how research can help to inform and underpin robust policy formulation. She is a co-investigator and Co-Chair of the Project Delivery Group for the £10 million Capabilities in Academic-Policy Engagement project. She has previously worked as a policy adviser at the Russell Group, the Wellcome Trust, Universities UK, and as a parliamentary researcher for a number of MPs.

Catalina Turcu is Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at the Bartlett School of Planning, Academic Director of UCL’s Stockholm City Partnership (Climate Change and Health in the City) and Founder of UCL SDG Research Accelerator. She is an interdisciplinary scholar by training (architecture, urban planning, housing, public policy) and interest (sustainability) and her work contributes to the understanding and measurement of sustainable built environments at the local or community level. Theoretically, her research adds the political dimension to the traditional three-pillar (economic, social, environmental) understanding of sustainability. Empirically, her research examines sustainable urban transformations at the local level by integrating social, political and materialaspects of the built environment. Catalina’s current research focuses on sustainable food systems and, complex urban systems for sustainability and health. She is a regular adviser to governments and international organisations, including the World Bank, OECD, UN and WHO.