{"id":742,"date":"2018-12-11T21:01:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T21:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/?p=742"},"modified":"2022-03-09T21:39:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:39:17","slug":"the-critical-role-of-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/2018\/12\/11\/the-critical-role-of-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Critical Role of Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

I study urban governance of climate change, so while\u00a0at the COP I am focused on conversations\u00a0regarding ‘sub-national’ and\/or ‘non-state’ actors (to use common UNFCCC language), and in particular\u00a0conversations regarding cities.<\/p>\n

To some extent, city-level discussions are out of place at a UN conference, which\u00a0hosts negotiations among federal government representatives. However, when it comes to addressing climate change, national-level negotiations may not be the most effective. Or rather, it would be “insufficient” – as one speaker said today – “to have a theory of change that relies exclusively on national governments.”<\/p>\n

As of this year, the UN published data that over 55% of the global population now lives in urban areas, and this number is expected to still grow significantly over this century. One social scientist describes the modern age as blanketed in an “urban fabric”, such that all regions – cities or rural – are influenced by a globalized, urban-centric culture.\u00a0A majority of the planet’s people, built infrastructure, and economic assets are based in cities. So cities are generally important to the modern world. But\u00a0for all of the above reasons their involvement\u00a0is also essential to achieving the goal of limiting planetary warming to 1.5C.<\/p>\n

This fact is strongly recognized in side events at this year’s COP, though it seems to me it hasn’t quite reached the high-level negotiations. In these past two days, I have heard local representatives from many countries talk about successes in their cities, and how these changes are essential in order for their countries to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as committed to in the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20181210_165038\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are other exciting developments in the works. The IPCC recognized a need for more research and data on cities, and so held the first CitiesIPCC<\/a> conference in Canada this past March. Additionally, some of the scientists who wrote the IPCC Special Report on 1.5C also released (at a session yesterday! See picture below) a summary of the special report<\/a> specifically written for urban policymakers.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20181210_175301\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, novel networks have been developing within countries, such as: #WeAreStillIn<\/a> in the US (which both Swarthmore College and Swarthmore Borough are signatories of), the Japan Climate Initiative<\/a>, and Alianza para la Acci\u00f3n Clim\u00e1tica<\/a> in Argentina. I also learned today that there is a fairly new network of these networks, called the Alliances for Climate Action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"MVIMG_20181210_110033\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MVIMG_20181211_103321\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It will be a fascinating political science and climate policy-making question in the years to come as to how to incorporate such non-state actors (which include not just cities, but also businesses, higher ed, civil society, etc.) into international climate negotiations. There needs to be a place for them at the table, and this has the potential to shake up the standard practice of state-focused negotiations. As another speaker said today, it\u00a0will only be via “constructive engagement” between state and non-state actors that we will be able to sufficiently “accelerate NDC implementation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I study urban governance of climate change, so while\u00a0at the COP I am focused on conversations\u00a0regarding ‘sub-national’ and\/or ‘non-state’ actors (to use common UNFCCC language), and in particular\u00a0conversations regarding cities. To some extent, city-level discussions are out of place at a UN conference, which\u00a0hosts negotiations among federal government representatives. However, when it comes to addressing … Continue reading The Critical Role of Cities<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}