The Urban Climate Transition Conference 2025

UCL Grand Challenges are excited to bring this international conference to Friends House, London, on Monday 06 October 2025.

With the world’s urban population projected to grow by a third or more by 2050 and the likelihood of living in a 1.5°C degrees warmer world, urbanisation is a uniquely global, locally differentiated, opportunity to build just and ecologically sensitive development pathways within the climate crisis.

Are existing priorities for urban development the right ones for living justly with climate change? How appropriate are current structures for decision-making in local and national government, businesses and civil society? What data, human resources and relationships are needed for inclusive decision-making within the climate crisis? Should city residents and governments orient toward incremental or more transformative agendas, or even resist some dynamics of change?

This one-day conference approaches these questions through four specific lenses: financing, loss and damage, consequence analysis and science-policy relationships. Beyond knowledge sharing, the aim is to open networking space for policy-makers, practitioners and researchers to interact. Three ‘practice labs’ will take delegates through participatory methods.

AGENDA

08:30 – 09:00	Registration, tea & coffee and networking - Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ
09:00 – 09:30	Opening and welcome Mark Pelling (UCL), Jacqui Glass (UCL) and Winston Chow (IPCC)
09:30 – 10:30	Session 1 – Urban financing for net zero, adaptation and loss and damage Provocation from Xi Liang (UCL) and panel discussion with Mahesti Okitasari (UNU-IAS), Chris Hurst (UCL/EUI) and Shobhakar Dhakal (Asian Institute of Technology), chaired by Priti Parikh (UCL).
10:30 – 11:30	Session 2 – Urban loss and damage: compensation beyond 1.5 degrees Provocation from Pablo Sebastián Mariani (UCLG) and panel discussion with Chandni Singh (IIHS), Friederike Hartz (UCL) and Joni Pegram (UNICEF), chaired by Lisa Vanhala (UCL)
11:30 – 12:00	Break
12:00 – 13:00	Session 3 – Consequences of urban adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage compensation for sustainable development Provocation from Joe Mulligan (KDI) and panel discussion with Gemma Cremen (UCL), Minal Pathak (Ahmedabad University), Kristen Guida (GLA) and Matthias Garschagen (LMU Munich), chaired by Gian Delgado Ramos (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch
14:00 – 16:00	Practice Labs
	1. Public Sector Capabilities Index Led by Rainer Kattel (UCL) and Bec Chau (UCL)
	2. Normative future visioning for urban risk prevention Led by Jamal Dabbeek (An-Najah National University) and Roberto Gentile (UCL)
	3. Building networks for impactful science Led by Kris De Meyer (UCL) and Albert Salamanca (SEI/ARA)
16:00 – 16:45	Session 4 – Science, power and change in the city Provocation from Bipashyee Ghosh (UCL) and panel discussion with Manuela Di Mauro (FCDO), Savina Carluccio (International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure) and Heleen de Coninck (Eindhoven University of Technology), chaired by Liliana Miranda Sara (Cities for Life Foro)
16:45 – 17:00	Closing remarks Aromar Revi (IIHS)

Conference speakers

Mark Pelling (UCL): Mark Pelling is Professor in Risk and Disaster Reduction at the UCL Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction and Strategic Lead on Governance for the UCL Grand Challenge of the Climate Crisis. His research focusses on social and political aspects of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, mainly in urban contexts and often in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. He has been an author for the urban chapter of IPCC AR5 and AR6 and the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. He currently acts as Review Editor for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.
Jacqui Glass (UCL): Professor Jacqui Glass is Dean of The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at UCL. As a construction management scholar, her research focusses on how we build, why we build, and how we organise ourselves to create buildings and infrastructure for a wide range of users. Her research has addressed sustainability management within the industry, including a growing focus on the possibilities afforded by increased digital construction, automation, and industry transformation. She has extensive leadership experience in research and enterprise, having previously been a Vice Dean Research, Director of the EPSRC Industrial Doctorate Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Construction Engineering), and an Associate Dean for Enterprise.
Winston Chow (IPCC): Winston Chow is Co-Chair of Working Group II (WGII) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 7th Assessment Cycle. Previously, he served as a Lead Author on the “Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure” chapter in the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report of WGII. He is also Lee Kong Chian Professor of Urban Climate at Singapore Management University’s (SMU) College of Integrative Studies, and is the Pillar Lead for Urban Systems in SMU’s Urban Institute. His research primarily examines urban climate change risks and vulnerability arising from heat, and he leads the multi-institute “Cooling Singapore” initiative since 2017.
Xi Liang (UCL): Xi Liang is Professor of Sustainable Transitions in Construction and Infrastructure at Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at UCL. His researches focus on climate investment and finance policy and standard, application of digital technologies in carbon pricing, valuation of low-carbon projects and innovation in carbon capture utilisation and storage technologies. He is also a Standing Committee Member for China’s Climate Investment and Finance Association (CIFA) and Deputy Director for China’s CCUS Committee.
Mahesti Okitasari (UNU-IAS): Mahesti Okitasari is a Research Fellow and Academic Associate at the United Nations University’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). With a background in urban planning and architecture, her work focusses on understanding policy and institutional architecture at the interface of climate and development and how power and politics materialise in multi-level climate governance in the global South. She also serves as a Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and the AR7 WGIII report.
Chris Hurst (UCL/EUI): Chris Hurst is an Honorary Professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at UCL and a Senior Fellow at the European University Institute’s Florence School of Transnational Governance. Prior to this, he spent three decades working at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, including as Director General of the Projects Directorate. His work focusses on innovation, finance, and the inclusion of climate considerations in investment decisions, in particular around understanding how to increase the role of sustainability in business choices.
Shobhakar Dhakal (Asian Institute of Technology: Shobhakar Dhakal is Professor of Energy, Environment and Climate Change at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. He works in the interface of research-policy-practice aiming for impact and enabling evidence-based policy making. His areas of expertise include cities and climate change, climate finance and carbon markets, accounting of energy and GHG emissions, modelling of policy options, among others. He currently serves as Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, having previously acted as CLA in the AR5 and AR6 cycles. He also leads CLARE-ASEAN Initiative on Climate Resilient Cities, funded by FCDO-UK and IDRC-Canada under the CLARE programme.
Priti Parikh (UCL): Priti Parikh is Professor in Engineering Infrastructure and International Development. She is the Vice-Dean International for Bartlett Faculty of Built Environment and Director (Head of Department) of UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. Priti is the founder director of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre. This centre focuses on engineering solutions for human development and wellbeing; and researches locally acceptable water-sanitation-energy solutions in low-middle income countries and links with SDGs. She has a research portfolio of £6m and has published outputs in Nature journals.
Pablo Sebastián Mariani (UCLG): Pablo Sebastián Mariani is a Programme Manager (Ecological Transition) at United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). As a sustainable urban development and local multilateralism professional, his expertise spans global advocacy, ecological transition and local policy. Across roles, he has supported international policy and development to state-led social programs and provided technical assistance in slum upgrading.
Chandni Singh (IIHS): Chandni Singh is Lead (Practice) at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and Associate Professor at IIHS University. She works on issues of climate change adaptation, differential vulnerability, disaster risk management, gender, and migration with a regional focus on South Asia and increasingly, sub-Saharan Africa. She is a Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and Review Editor on the AR7 WGII report. Chandni is amongst the top 10 most cited adaptation researchers in India and top 50 globally.
Friederike Hartz (UCL): Friederike Hartz is a Research/Policy Associate with the UCL Grand Challenge of the Climate Crisis. Her recently published doctoral research explored what it means for experts to take responsibility for climate knowledge in and around the IPCC in a warming world. Her research and policy experience spans climate science-policy interactions, climate governance and diplomacy, with a particular focus on limits to adaptation and loss and damage from climate change.
Joni Pegram (UNICEF): Joni Pegram is the Global Climate Policy Lead in the Programme Division at UNICEF Headquarters. Her work focusses on integrating a child rights based approach in climate-related policies, action and finance at all levels. This involves supporting UNICEF country teams to assist governments in the design and implementation of child-sensitive national climate policies and leveraging this experience and examples of "what works" to assist government delegations within the global UNFCCC process to enhance focus on children as a distinct cohort.
Lisa Vanhala (UCL): Lisa Vanhala is Pro-Vice Provost for the UCL Grand Challenge of the Climate Crisis and Professor of Political Science at the UCL Department of Political Science. Her research sits at the intersection of political science, law and sociology, with expertise in the development and mobilization of law in the fields of climate change and human rights. Her current research focusses on the policies and politics of climate change loss and damage from the UN to the local level. She is participating in the IPCC AR7 WGII as Coordinating Lead Author for Chapter 5 on Responses to Loss and Damage.
Mark Maslin (UCL): Mark Maslin is Pro-Vice Provost for the UCL Grand Challenge of the Climate Crisis and Professor of Physical Geography at the UCL Department of Geography. He is a leading scientist with particular interest in understanding climate change in the past, present and future. His work focuses on understanding the Anthropocene and the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. Professor Maslin has published 10, books, over 100 popular articles and over 230 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and The Lancet.
Joe Mulligan (KDI): Joe Mulligan is a civil and environmental engineer passionate about the joint application of science and situated knowledge to develop viable infrastructures. He co-directs the global organisation of the Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a community development and design nonprofit, and has over 20 years of experience in co-design and co-production of both research and built works with different communities of knowledge and practice. Holding a PhD in Planning and Decision Analysis, he is also Formas career scholar at the Department of Environmental Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Gemma Cremen (UCL): Gemma Cremen is Associate Professor for Risk and Resilience Engineering within the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE) at UCL, where she is also Co-Director of the DE|RISC (Disaster Engineering for Resilient Societies) Lab. Her research focus is at the intersection of civil engineering and other related disciplines, with the aim of facilitating multi-hazard risk- and resilience-informed decision making for a better tomorrow’s world.
Minal Pathak (Ahmedabad University): Minal Pathak is an Associate Professor at the Global Centre for Environment and Energy at Ahmedabad University, India. Her research focuses on climate change mitigation actions for urban settlements, transport, buildings, their co-benefits and interlinkages with development. During the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment cycle, she was a Senior Scientist with the WGIII TSU. Currently, she serves as Coordinating Lead Author on the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and Lead Author on the AR7 WGIII report.
Kristen Guida (GLA): Kristen Guida is Head of Strategy, Prevention and Community Resilience at the Greater London Authority (GLA). Her role involves integration of resilience across policy and programmes and ensuring that resilience practice in London centres people and communities. As coordinator of the London and South East Climate Change Partnerships, she previously spent more than 15 years coordinating urban partnerships to support climate change adaptation across local governments, non-governmental and private sectors. She works to facilitate the conversation between science and practice, bringing together people and ideas from across sectors to respond to the social and environmental challenges presented by climate change.
Matthias Garschagen (LMU Munich): Matthias Garschagen is Chair in Human Geography and heads the Teaching and Research Unit for Human Environment Relations at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU). He is also an Honorary Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne. His research focusses on risk, vulnerability, adaptation and transformation in the context of environmental hazards and climate change, particularly in cities. He previously served as Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Ocean and the Cryosphere as well as the AR6 WGII and SYR reports. He is currently involved again as Coordinating Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.
Gian Delgado Ramos (National Autonomous University of Mexico): Gian C. Delgado-Ramos is a full-time researcher at the Institute of Geography of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He holds the highest level of productivity within Mexico’s National System of Researchers. He is also a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences since 2017. He currently serves as Coordinating Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. Previously, he was involved as Lead Author in the IPCC’s AR5 WGIII report and as Review Editor in the AR6 WGII report. His main lines of research are focused on urban metabolism and urban circularity, urban governance and local capacity building, and urban climate and environmental policy evaluation.
Rainer Kattel (UCL): Rainer Kattel is Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). His research focusses on organisational and institutional aspects of innovations and innovation policies. He has worked as an expert for the OECD, UNDP and the European Commission, and served as a member of E-Estonia Council advising the Prime Minister of Estonia. Currently, he leads the Estonian Government’s Gender Equality Council.
Bec Chau (UCL): Bec Chau is a Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). As part of the Public Sector Capabilities Index team, she is working to co-design a tool with city governments to support them to identify, assess and strengthen the critical skills they require to solve problems, deliver more innovative public services, and catalyse the social transformation needed to tackle the many challenges they face.
Jamal Dabbeek (An-Najah National University): Jamal Dabbeek is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Unit at An-Najah National University in Palestine. His research focusses on multi-hazard risk assessment, forecasting future risk for urban development, rapid post-disaster damage assessment, modelling the built environment using earth observation, and developing strategies for disaster risk reduction, including structural rehabilitation and disaster insurance.
Roberto Gentile (UCL): Roberto Gentile is an Associate Professor at the UCL Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction with a research focus on multi-hazard risk assessment for design and rehabilitation, and catastrophe risk modelling. He is also co-director of the DE|RISC Lab (Disaster Engineering for ResIlient SoCieties Laboratory), working at the intersection of civil engineering and other disciplines to facilitate multi-hazard risk- and resilience-informed decision-making for a better tomorrow’s world.
Kris De Meyer (UCL): Kris de Meyer is the Director of the UCL Climate Action Unit and a Senior Research Fellow in the UCL Department of Earth Sciences. The Climate Action Unit works to change how scientists, policymakers, businesses, media, civil society organisations and citizens engage with each other about climate change. With a background in neuroscience, he engages as science communicator and science-policy co-production expert, bringing insights from neuroscience and psychology to the domain of climate change.
Albert Salamanca (SEI/ARA): Albert Salamanca is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Asia Centre where he leads its Climate Change, Disasters and Development cluster. With more than 15 years of experience working in the climate adaptation space, his current research interests are on the themes of resilience, risk and vulnerabilities, traditional ecological knowledge, mobility and spatial linkages, disaster displacement, and sustainable livelihoods. He is also the Head of Secretariat of the Adaptation Research Alliance, a global coalition for action-oriented adaptation research.
Bipashyee Ghosh (UCL): Bipashyee Ghosh is a Lecturer in Engineering, Innovation and Public Policy at UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP). Her research is on Innovation, Policy and Sustainability transitions. She has worked in research projects on Transformative Innovation Policy and Deep Transitions, focussing on innovation and knowledge creation towards sustainable, democratic and decolonial futures. Her empirical interest is in transition dynamics in the Global South, particularly in South and Southeast Asia and Africa.
Manuela Di Mauro (FCDO): Manuela Di Mauro is an expert advisor on climate, environment and infrastructure in the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and leads FCDO’s research portfolio on climate adaptation and resilience. An engineer by background and Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, Manuela has been Water Lead at the UK National Infrastructure Commission, the lead advisor on urban resilience at the UK Committee on Climate Change, led DRR work at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, and held a Post-Doc at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
Savina Carluccio (International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure): Savina Carluccio is the Executive Director of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and a fervent advocate of the role of civil engineers in tackling our society’s biggest challenges. As an experienced Civil Engineer and infrastructure practitioner, she has almost two decades of experience advising government, infrastructure owners and operators, multi-lateral development banks and NGOs to develop and implement inclusive, sustainable and resilient infrastructure that is fit for the future.
Heleen de Coninck (Eindhoven University of Technology): Heleen de Coninck is a full Professor of Socio-Technical Innovation and Climate Change at Eindhoven University of Technology and a Professor in Climate change and system transitions at the Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her research focusses, inter alia, on the role of innovation and technology in the international climate negotiations and on policy for making energy-intensive industry climate-neutral. She currently serves as a Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, having previously been involved as Lead Author and Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC’s Fifth and Sixth Assessment Cycles.
Liliana Miranda Sara (Cities for Life Foro): Liliana Miranda Sara is the Founder and Executive Director of the Cities for Life Foro, an inter-institutional network of municipalities, universities and civil society from 18 cities in Peru. She works on the interface between policy design and activism. With more than 40 years of experience in urban environmental management, planning and research, she has worked on topics, including local climate action plans, consensus and capacity building, water governance and sustainable construction. She serves as Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and Review Editor on the AR7 WGII report, having previously been involved as Lead Author in AR6 WGII.
Aromar Revi (IIHS): Aromar Revi is founding Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and the Vice-Chancellor of IIHS University. With over 40 years of interdisciplinary experience in governance, institutional development, management and implementation across public, private, academic and civil society institutions, he is a world leading climate scientist, urban sustainability, infrastructure and disaster risk reduction scholar and professional. He has led over 250 major practice, consulting and research assignments in India and abroad. Having been involved with the IPCC since its 5th assessment cycle, he currently serves as a Coordinating Lead Author on the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.