TRAILER—Cities 1.5: The 1.5 Degree Mission

The UN Women slogan for International Women’s Day 2024 is “Invest in women: Accelerate progress,” and in support of this goal we’re opening Season 3 of Cities 1.5 with a production team takeover! David Miller may be the voice of the podcast, but our amazing production team is all female. Also, we hear from two amazing women who are working to ensure that women’s voices are heard, mainstreamed and amplified, and that their needs are centred in the battle to stop climate breakdown.

Image Credit: Photo by Ruben Hutabarat on Unsplash

Featured guests:
Xiye Bastida is a youth climate activist, co-founder the Re-Earth Initiative, lead organizer of Fridays for Future New York City, and Secretariat Team Member of Future Generations Tribunal. Born in Atlacomulco, Mexico, Xiye is a proud member of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community. She is an undergraduate student set to receive her bachelor’s degree from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania this year, and will also be debuting The Whale Lagoon, a film she co-wrote and executive produced.

Silvia Marcon is the Head of Global Leadership at C40. She works with the Chair of C40, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, her team in Paris, and the C40 Executive Director team to set the Chair’s strategic vision, implement their priorities, and coordinate Steering Committee engagement. Silvia leads the Women4Climate initiative, designed to advance and support the emergence of the next generation of female climate leaders in C40 Cities.

Special thanks to Jess, Peggy, and Dali of the Cities 1.5 Production Team for lending their voices to this episode.

Links
The Lasting Legacy of Women4Climate
Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
United Nations: International Women’s Day March 8
The Re-Earth Initiative
Xiye Bastida website
How Xiye Bastida Became a Leader in the Climate Fight

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

This past December, COP28 signalled the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era. 150 heads of state came to the consensus that in order to halve emissions by 2030 - the target that scientists have warned us be must adhere to in order to avoid climate catastrophe - we must transition away from dirty energy. This is a monumental moment for our planet…and cities are going to be leading the way as we execute on these actions.

In season 3 of Cities 1.5, host David Miller is speaking to urban leaders who are driving change locally, with global impacts. Featuring guests like:
- Xiye Bastida, Youth Climate Activist
- Mark Watts, C40 Executive Director
- Agnes Agyepong, Founder and CEO of Global Black Maternal Health
- ...and more!

Season 3 of Cities 1.5 debuts March 5, with a new episode every Tuesday after that. 

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been warning us for decades that record-breaking, hot, fire- and smoke-filled summers like the one we just experienced will continue to be the new normal without huge and immediate cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions. The latest IPCC report serves as our last warning: carry on as we are and we’ll face ever-increasing extreme climate events, such as the terrible wildfires which just raged across Canada, leading to loss of life, property and livelihoods, as well as impacting on the health of millions. In our season two finale, we ask an IPCC contributor and a wildfire expert for advice on how to ensure there is a future for us all.

Featured in this episode: António Guterres, UN Secretary General

Featured guests:
Jen Baron is a PhD candidate in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.  Jen has been featured extensively in both print and broadcast media, explaining the causes of the Canadian wildfires, their links to the climate crisis, and how best to prevent and manage them.

Aromar Revi is the Director of India’s Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Aromar is one of South Asia’s most experienced risk and disaster management professionals. He was a member of the Core Writing Team of the 2022 AR6 Synthesis Report, and helped produce previous IPCC reports.

Links
Fire and Climate: Connecting the Dots in British Columbia News Media - Canadian Journal of Communication, University Toronto Press
Abrupt, climate-induced increase in wildfires in British Columbia since the mid-2000s - Nature
A century of transformation - Jen Baron et al.
C40 North America mayors' response to wildfires and air quality crisis in the region - C40 website
IPCC Report - 8. Urban Areas - Aromar Revi
Urban Cooling Toolbox - C40 Knowledge Hub

Image credit: © Serafine Frey

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

In the face of enforced mass migration, the rising cost of recovery from increasing climate disasters, and an uncertain future without drastic and immediate action, it’s important to hold up examples of cities and projects that are successful in their innovative climate actions. In this episode, we look at climate projects in Curitiba, Brazil, and Barranquilla, Colombia, that are working towards saving the planet while making their cities more prosperous and resilient.

Featured guests:
Mayor Rafael Greca was elected to his current mayorship of the city of Curitiba, Brazil in 2017. His city participates in the Pathway Towards Zero Waste and Urban Nature C40 Accelerator programs. Curitiba has also produced a number of innovative projects and case studies, including a hydroelectric power plant, water shortage reduction programs, community gardens, modernized bus rapid transit, and the transformation of a landfill into a solar pyramid.

Mayor Jaime Pumarejo was elected Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia in 2019. Under his leadership, the award-winning Todos al Parque initiative – a massive park regeneration scheme – has transformed Barranquilla, improving the health wellbeing and safety of residents. Due to its location and resources, Barranquilla is also a main landing hub for people displaced by climate change impacts: through his work with the Mayors Migration Council, Mayor Pumajero advocates equitably for all members of Barranquilla’s expanding community.

Links
Solar Energy for Social Housing in Curitiba - C40 Cities
C40-MMC Global Mayors Task Force on Climate and Migration - C40 Cities
Keeping 1.5°C Alive in the Global South: Life or Death - Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
Breaking the Walls of Complex Systems Change in Cities - Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy

Image credit:  © Helene Baum

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”: the first line of the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities is an idea that the two cities featured in this episode’s case study know all too well. The Global South’s Nairobi, Kenya and the Global North’s Rotterdam in the Netherlands are half a world apart, but they’re each facing similar and equally dire climate consequences that are caused by and a threat to the major economic driver of import and export in their cities. But in the face of these “worst of times,” both of these cities are implementing the best and most innovative strategies they can to curb climate impact and make their key industries and transportation systems more resilient and sustainable.

Featured guests:
Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb has helped Rotterdam become one of Europe’s most diverse, dynamic, and multicultural cities. Thanks to his leadership, Rotterdam has evolved into an open and progressive urban centre with a strong emphasis on circularity, sustainability, and innovation. Mayor Aboutaleb has a well-earned global reputation as one of the world’s most respected and appreciated mayors.

Maurice Kavai is the Deputy Director, Climate Change, for Nairobi City County. The main goal of his work is to ensure that climate actions are streamlined within Nairobi’s urban programs, and to anchor all sector initiatives and development plans into the city’s climate action plan. Nairobi urban planning strategies include projects such as their railway city master plan, which will integrate mixed-use development, including affordable housing, with the railway transport network. The city also has previous successes with co-developed, inclusive planning processes, such as that which they undertook with the Mukuru Informal Settlement.

Links
“Keeping 1.5°C Alive in the Global South: Life or Death,” by Pamela Escobar Vargas, Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.
Dutch landscape shifts with North Sea wind farms, onshore hubs - Reuters
Roadmap ZECL: Moving towards Zero Emission City Logistics in Rotterdam in 2025 - C40 Knowledge Hub
Community-led upgrade to a Nairobi slum could be a model for Africa - The Guardian
Work Begins on Much-Awaited Nairobi Railway City - Construction Kenya
At the Africa Climate Summit, city leaders call for action and investment on climate and green jobs - C40 Cities

Image credit: © Alyssa Babasa

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

July 2023 was the hottest month globally since records began. Combine that with several months filled with a series of extreme weather events - from heatwaves in Europe, North America and Asia, to wildfires in Canada and Greece - and it’s undeniable that the impacts of climate change that experts have long been warning us about are here today. And the worse news is that it’s only going to get hotter.

Featured guests:
Eugenia Kargbo is Freetown, Sierra Leone’s Chief Heat Officer. Her role is the first of its kind in Africa, and her duties include raising public awareness about extreme heat, improving responses to heat waves, and collecting heat impact data for her city of 1.2 million people. Her team’s Freetown the Treetown project was a 2023 nominee for the Protect and Restore Nature Earthshot Award.

Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis served as the Mayor of Athens from 2019 to the end of 2023. He has worked at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has held positions in the European Parliament in Brussels and the World Bank in Kosovo. He is also the vice president of the Hellenic Agency for Local Development and Local Government, and a Greek Leadership Council member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Links:
Hot Cities, Chilled Economies: Freetown, Sierra Leone
Freetown’s highly replicable way of self-financing urban reforestation - C40 Knowledge Hub
Freetown the Treetown - Earthshot
Eleni Myrivili: A three-part plan to take on extreme heat waves - C40 Knowledge Hub
Heatwave tips from Athens: Cool routes app, new pocket parks and renovating a Roman aqueduct - Euronews

Image credit: © Erin Dwi Azmi C40

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

Climate breakdown is happening, and the cost of ignoring this phenomenon will be far greater than the cost of immediate action. We know that green investments promote the transition to a more resilient, prosperous, and sustainable economy. But what are the steps that cities need to take in order to shift their investments away from fossil fuels? How can policy makers support the creation of good, green jobs - while still protecting the climate?

Featured guests:
Daniel Zarrilli is the Special Advisor for Climate and Sustainability at Columbia University where he is supporting the creation of its new, world-leading Climate School and advising on pathways to achieve the university’s deep decarbonization goals. During his time working in the NYC Mayor’s Office, New York City committed to divesting entirely from fossil fuel funds and C40 Mayor Blasio (along with current C40 chair, Mayor Sadiq Khan of London) founded the Divest/Invest forum, an initiative aimed to build capacity and knowledge sharing for cities.

Dr Savannah Cox has recently accepted the position of Lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield in England. She is an interdisciplinary qualitative social scientist studying urban planning for climate change and urban climate justice, with a focus on financial systems and infrastructure.

Dr Zac Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management in the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His research advances critical and practical knowledge of climate finance with the place-specific challenges of urban climate action. 

Links
C40 Divest/Invest Forum
"Interrupted rhythms and uncertain futures" - Sarah Knuth, Savannah Cox, Sahar Zavareh Hofmann, John Morris, Zac Taylor & Beki McElvain
Spotlight On: Cities Divest-Invest - C40 Knowledge Hub
Building climate resilience in cities through insurance - C40 Knowledge Hub

Image credit: Rosanna Wan @ C40

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

C40 and the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy are providing an opportunity for cities to rethink conventional economic systems, like capitalism, that have led to the climate crisis. It is abundantly clear that the economic rules and systems created after WWII have led to twin crises: climate change and continued inequality. It’s necessary to unpack these theories to better understand their impacts and relation to climate breakdown and figure out more effective economic strategies that cities can use to restore justice and health to our planet. But what exactly do cities need to understand - and do - to make this happen?

Featured guests:
Sandrine Dixson-Declève is the co-president of The Club of Rome and an international climate change thought leader. When she is not leading The Club of Rome, she also serves as an advisor, lecturer, and facilitator for difficult conversations about the climate crisis. Recently, The Club of Rome published Earth for All – A Survival Guide for Humanity, which revisits theories behind the degrowth and wellbeing movements that The Club of Rome helped to form fifty years ago. Sandrine was recognised most recently by Reuters as one of 25 global female trailblazers leading the fight against climate change.

Councillor Susan Aitken was elected to the Langside of Glasgow, Scotland, in 2012 and became Leader of Glasgow City Council - the Scottish equivalent to mayor - in 2017. Before being elected, Susan worked in a variety of policy and research roles in the Scottish Parliament and the third sector and as a freelance writer and editor specialising in health and social care policy. She is a graduate of both Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities.

Links
“Prosperity Beyond Growth: An Emerging Agenda for European Cities,” by Ben Rogers et al., Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
“Cities Can Lead the Energy Employment Transition … but They Must Plan for It,” by Jim Stanford
The Limits to Growth
Scientist Johan Rockström Explains Earth's Climate Tipping Points - Global Commons Alliance
Glasgow’s Regional Economic Strategy
Wellbeing economy policy design guide - C40 Knowledge Hub
The shared ingredients for a wellbeing economy - C40 Knowledge Hub

Image credit: © Aline Souza C40

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

The traditional economic concepts that the Global North has been using since WWII assume that there is an infinite planet and that pollution has no economic consequences - assumptions that are wildly wrong. In contrast, ecological economics is a model designed to respect the fact that our economy exists on a finite planet and puts more emphasis on the quality of economic activity than its quantity. But a shift in mindset of this magnitude to embrace this new way of thinking requires guidance and a proper roadmap if it’s to be successfully integrated into urban policies. This episode sees Cities 1.5 looking to translate the theoretical into the practical by speaking to one of the world’s leading ecological economists, Tim Jackson, for a stand alone interview to help demonstrate what cities can do to deliver shared prosperity - not just an unsustainable goal of infinite growth.

Featured guests:
Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity - a multi-disciplinary, international research consortium that aims to explore the economic, social, and political dimensions of sustainable prosperity. He is an award-winning economist and published author of several books, including his latest: Post Growth: Life After Capitalism.

Links
Post Growth: Life After Capitalism by Tim Jackson (Polity Press, 2021)
“Prosperity Beyond Growth: An Emerging Agenda for European Cities,” by Ben Rogers et al., Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy report by Professor Tim Jackson,Economics Commissioner, Sustainable Development Commission
Prosperity without Growth (book) by Tim Jackson
Transition Network website
Beyond GDP: A proposed new economic framework: Vancouver - C40 Knowledge Hub

Image credit: © Rosanna Wan C40

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/

In this episode, we discuss what cities can do - and are already doing - to combat climate change, while also considering how cities can communicate these policies. Communication means exchanging and listening to ideas; and in the climate context, to fight back against the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry, far-right political movements and online conspiracy theorists. Mayors and governments need to think about how they communicate with their constituents about their plans for phasing out fossil fuels and the path towards a healthier climate - especially our youth leaders, who deserve a seat at the table today to help shape the world they will inherit tomorrow.

Featured guests:
Andrea Everett is the Senior Director of Survey Research and Data Science at Climate Nexus. Her interest in opinion research began in graduate school, with a desire to understand how public attitudes affect foreign policy outcomes. She holds a PhD in politics from Princeton University and a BA in political science from Stanford.

Lori Lodes has been the Executive Director of Climate Power since its inception in 2020. She is a communications specialist who has worked for prominent advocacy groups, unions, political campaigns, and corporations. Climate Power and Lori are also helping cities and mayors to seize the opportunities presented by the Act.

Alysa, Ecrin, and Zeynep are middle school students from Toronto, Canada in Miha Isik's social awareness project class. Along with their classmates, they wrote, composed, performed, and directed the music video “No Future No Children.”

Links for this episode:
“The City Research and Innovation Agenda: Prioritizing Knowledge Gaps and Policy Processes to Accelerate City Climate Action,” by Cathy Oke et al, Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash - Vox, 20 January 2023
The cost of fossil gas: The health, economic and environmental implications for cities - C40 Knowledge Hub
What is the Inflation Reduction Act? - USA Today
Climate action and the Inflation Reduction Act: A guide for local government leaders - C40 Knowledge Hub
Maximizing the impact of US federal climate investments: The unique role of cities - C40 Knowledge Hub

Image credit: © Ngadi Smart - C40

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is a podcast by University of Toronto Press and is produced in association with the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

Our executive producers are Dali Carmichael and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/