Identifying social determinants of urban low carbon transitions: the case of energy transition in Bilbao, Basque Country

33 p.Cities are widely defined as complex systems formed by coupled social, ecological and economical systems. The complexity of urban dynamics goes far beyond its boundaries due to the strong influence of larger scales and the deep dependence of cities on outside resources. Such crucial cross-scale effects can fuel maladaptive behaviour, conducting cities to rigid and unsustainable traps. Urban energy systems have all the ingredients of complexity, dependence and vulnerability to global environmental change. Presumably, transformability, like adaptability, depends on perceptions, values and culture of each society. Here it is hypothesized that often social behaviours related to the scepticism, close-minded attitudes, traditional economic models, lack of trust in institutions and in self-capacities are those which limit the potential of transformation in cities (favouring lock-in status). The type of energy and the way it is supplied depends largely on utilities, urban planning and design, economic incentives, regulations, investment opportunities etc. These determinants, together with household factors depending on lifestyle, rent, etc. affect the level of consumption and choices. Altogether, these determinants play a decisive role in decision making processes at individual and institutional level and therefore can limit the transformation potential. We use a case study in Bilbao (Basque Country) to illustrate barriers and hidden opportunities of a local energy transition through an analysis of its cognitive dimension. This is done by applying a semi-quantitative methodology (Q method) which aids to investigate the stakeholders’ perceived capacity of change. This results in four distinct discourses with direct implications in the potential of transformation of the city of Bilbao

Bridging Science and Policy to Mitigate and Adapt Cities to Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities in the Context of the Basque Declaration

4 p.A reduction in emissions and the adaptation of cities to climate change is a key point in the Basque Declaration-The potential of science making a valuable contribution to urban climate objectives-Possible divergence of interests in terms of science and urban policy-The occasional difficulty in attaining applicability and scientific soundness-The challenge and opportunity of reaching understandable and applicable scientific results

Socio-economic projections in urban climate change adaptation planning:Practices and prospects for just adaptation

Urban climate change adaptation efforts have often been criticized for exacerbating the inequitable impacts of climate change by failing to address the social, economic, and environmental impacts of adaptation. There is an urgent need to incorporate equity and justice concerns in adaptation planning as well as approaches and tools that enable such integration. However, climate justice scholarship to date has largely focused on theoretical questions and there is still a lack of focus on the operational aspects for supporting the implementation of climate justice. In this article, we argue that existing tools already in use in planning practice have the potential to support this aim. In particular, we argue that the integration of socio-economic data into adaptation planning practice could be an avenue for justice-centered urban adaptation. While the potential is clear, how to do this is still underexplored. To shed light on this question, we conduct a systematic review of research on the use of socio-economic projections in urban climate change adaptation planning and decision-making to investigate how these could be used as a tool to ensure just urban adaptation. Grounded in a recognized conceptual framework on urban climate justice, we analyze the evolution of research on socio-economic projections in urban adaptation and evaluate the potential for existing applications to promote climate justice. Through this analysis, we find that while socio-economic projections have not been explicitly linked to justice outcomes in the existing literature, clear potentials exist for these to be used as a tool to promote distributive, procedural, and recognition and restorative justice. Finally, we propose an operational framework for the application of socio-economic projections to promote justice-centered urban adaptation. Applying such a framework to urban adaptation planning can help center justice concerns in larger strategic adaptation planning efforts and enable a new form of more inclusive, data-driven climate governance in cities based on current know-how and existing capacities

Ingredientes de una transición sostenible hacia una ciudad baja en carbono

4 p.En las ciudades, los procesos de transformación hacia la sostenibilidad no son un mero problema de desarrollo tecnológico, sino también de política, relaciones de poder, economía, cultura y de los sistemas de valores sociales. *Los procesos participativos que incluyan el conocimiento y la experiencia de los distintos agentes y grupos sociales en las ciudades son fundamentales para (i) identificar oportunidades y barreras respecto a políticas de transformación de forma compartida y consensuada y (ii) comunicar y visualizar las dinámicas del sistema urbano, poniendo de relevancia su complejidad a los ojos de los tomadores de decisiones, tanto en la administración y los grupos sociales como en el sector privado. *El nivel de éxito de las transiciones hacia ciudades sostenibles bajas en carbono también depende de la combinación de los incentivos y medidas políticas, del momento en el que éstas son diseñadas e implementadas y del nivel de compromiso e involucración de los agentes. *Es crucial la capacidad de visualizar las oportunidades y poder responder mediante cambios en los comportamientos individuales y colectivos si se quiere involucrar a agentes clave en los procesos de transformación. *La transición a la sostenibilidad urbana requiere un esfuerzo y colaboración firme y mantenida entre investigadores, tomadores de decisiones, grupos sociales y otros agentes, tanto públicos como privados. *Aunque los resultados de las transiciones hacia la sostenibilidad - al igual que cualquier cambio social - son desconocidos a priori, la direccionalidad estratégica puede ser establecida y mantenida en el tiempo en ambientes de aprendizaje colaborativos y participativos

How are Italian and Spanish cities tackling climate change? A local comparative study

27 p.Cities are widely recognised as being pivotal to fight climate change. They magnify the drivers of climate change, experience the impacts and also concentrate the highest room for action. Although urban areas are broadly claimed to be climate leaders, there is no archetype of right actions given the highly contextual differences among them. Yet, the how and why cities respond to global environmental challenges in the context of increasingly competitive economies needs further research. In this paper we aim at advancing in this regard by assessing the state of the art on urban climate actions in two European Mediterranean Countries: Spain and Italy that face similar climate change challenges. Based on an extensive review of documents, we analyse mitigation and adaptation plans of 26 Spanish and 32 Italian Urban Audit cities, as representative samples. Our results show relevant differences between Spanish and Italian cities in terms of the starting time of their climate actions as well their implementation. We concur with existing literature in that mitigation is more advanced than adaptation actions and take evidence in both countries and we also demonstrate that international and national networking initiatives are being instrumental in engaging cities in climate action

A cross-scale worldwide analysis of coastal adaptation planning

The Paris Agreement requires measurement of the progress made on adaptation. Tracking the progress made by governments through analysis of policies provides insight into the goals and means to achieve adaptation targets. Here we show the current state-of-the-art in public adaptation planning affecting 136 of the largest coastal port urban agglomerations, covering 68 countries. We identify 226 adaptation policies: 88 at national level, 57 at regional/state level and 81 at city/metropolitan level. This set of adaptation policies can be considered the latest, most up-to-date database of governmental and public-led adaptations. Our analyses show that (1) in one half of cases, there is no evidence of policy implementation, (2) in almost 85% of cases, planned adaptation actions are not driven by present or future climatic impacts or risks, and (3) formal adaptation planning is relatively recent and is concentrated in more developed areas and countries.This study is part of the project CLIC (Are cities prepared for climate change? http://clic.bc3research.org/) supported by AXA Research Fund (Grant Agreement No. 4771) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) (Grant Agreement No. IJCI-2016-28835). KV and RS acknowledge the support of the European Union programme Erasmus+

Implications of governance structures on urban climate action: evidence from Italy and Spain

47 p.Cities are widely recognised as being pivotal to fight climate change. Cities magnify the drivers of climate change, experience the impacts and also concentrate the highest room for action. Given the 70% of the global emissions that cities are responsible for, national governments are unable to meet their international commitments for addressing mitigation and adaptation without the action and cooperation of cities. In turn, the capacity of local governments to address climate change is largely determined by the institutional architecture within which they are integrated. As a result, the relationship between the different arenas of authority and the integration of cities in national and international networks is considered critical in shaping the global capacity to govern climate change. This work aims to understand how multi-level climate governance and alliances of cities (national and international) are influencing the climate change capacity and performance of municipalities. This has been done by focusing on two national contexts of the European Union, Italy and Spain, in which climate policy, multi-level governance frameworks, the effects of the national and international networks of cities, and the climate response of cities are analysed through an extensive review of scientific and grey literature, and institutional documents. The results concur with existing literature on the importance of constructing collaborative multi-level climate frameworks at the national scale, that fully integrate the local level, in order to support cities to develop consistent climate action and raise awareness of the responsibility they have in this policy field

From Plastic Waste to New Materials for Energy Storage

The use of plastic waste to develop high added value materials, also known as upcycling, is a useful strategy towards the development of more sustainable materials. More specifically, the use of plastic waste as a feedstock for synthesising new materials for energy storage devices can not only provide a route to upgrading plastic waste but can also help in the search for sustainable materials. This perspective describes recent strategies for the use of plastic waste as a sustainable, cheap and abundant feedstock in the production of new materials for electrochemical energy storage devices such as lithium batteries, sodium batteries and supercapacitors. Two main strategies are described, the development of conducting carbons by combustion of plastic waste and the depolymerization of plastics into new chemicals and materials. In both cases, catalysis has been key to ensuring high efficiency and performance. Future opportunities and challenges are highlighted and hypotheses are made on how the use of plastic waste could enhance the circularity of current energy storage devices.NG acknowledges the funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie agreement No. 101028682. CJ acknowledges the financial support from el Ministerio de ciencia e innovación from the Juan de la Cierva Program (FJC2020-045872-I). The funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie agreement No. 101028975 and Ministerio de ciencia e innovación under PDC2021-121461-I00 project is acknowledged

Urban research at BC3: How climate change science can support urban policy making

4 p.Cities are becoming key actors to successfully achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives. . -Science can play a crucial role in supporting local decision-makers by providing top level information and applying or developing ad-hoc methodologies . -The case studies presented here show that there are many opportunities for science-policy collaboration at the city level . -The urban scale allows a higher visibility of this collaboration and can contribute to strengthening this link at different scales

Mobilitat

[p.4] Com ens hem de moure?[p.8] Mobilitat, sostenibilitat i solidaritat[p.10] Aprenent a viure d’altra manera[p.14] Sostenibilització curricular: cosa de tots[p.18] Escola-família-barri: nou espai amic[p.20] Universitats sostenibles: utopia inabastable?[p.21] Sa i estalvi[p.40] Ciutats per a cotxes o cotxes per la ciutat?[p.43] El viatge: art i consciència[p.47] Entrevista: Educació política i mobilitat a l’Índia. Ranjit Gadgil[p.50] Explica-m’ho tu![p.54] Entrevista: Ocupació verda per a una societat decarbonitzada. Michael RennerPeer Reviewe