Talking Transformations

[00:00:13.090] � Kes McCormick
You�re listening to a mini-series that explores cities, climate, and change� part of a new podcast collection called Talking Transformations produced by the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University. My name is Kes McCormick, and in this mini-series, I�ll guide you through a collection of interviews, recorded at the ICLEI World Congress, hosted in Malm�, Sweden during May 2022.� We�ll explore the dynamics of transformation in cities responding to climate change. We�ll meet influential change-makers from a range of organisations including the World Resources Institute, the European Commission and ICLEI.� And, through our discussions, I hope to share knowledge, examples, and inspiration relevant to you in your city, as we ask� �What next for cities?�

[00:01:00.830] � Pourya Salehi
I'm Pourya Salehi and I'm the acting head of the Urban Research team, at ICLEI World Secretariat and coordinator of ICLEI global research and strategy across all ICLEI offices. I'm also the co-chair of the Research and Innovation Technical Working Group at the Global Covenant of Mayor for Climate and Energy.

[00:01:17.210] � Kes McCormick
Wow. So you've got a few tasks going on there, but look in your role around research, why and how is research important to cities working with climate change?

[00:01:27.160] � Pourya Salehi
It's a very good question. I guess we all know that cost of inaction in the context of climate change is so high, but in my opinion, cost of action without being informed by science is not low at all. So this means that we certainly need evidence based science, informed decision making, and then I guess as someone who's working in a global city network and understanding the local governments, they have their day to day work and it's very fast paced space. And as such, I guess we need to provide information, distil information and knowledge for decision makers and power-holders who are sitting on limited resources of cities. And the decision that they may take may potentially impact generations to come. So that's why it's really important to ensure that there are city led research processes in place. Particularly in contextualized city led research processes. To make sure that the decisions being made in a given jurisdiction is really spot on and answering the challenges that the community needs to answer as a priority. But also supporting and contributing to the global community. Particularly on the mitigation aspect of climate change.

[00:02:41.810] � Kes McCormick
Yeah, so I mean, like you're talking about here, I mean, informed decision making and research that is really tacking into like what cities are working on and doing on climate change and sustainable development. I mean, is there a specific initiative around cities, climate change and research that really excites you right at the moment?

[00:02:59.710] � Pourya Salehi
Yeah, I guess that has been a gap for a long while until 2018 when we held a conference in cities and climate change science, also known as Cities IPCC in Edmonton, in Canada, and the primary outcome of it was the Global Research and Action Agenda. This agenda, which was actually approved by the IPCC in June in Korea, was the first global agenda, addressing research at the local level. And then building upon that, we had this Innovator for Cities Initiative established at the Global Covenant of Mayors, which is a partnership. ICLEI was one of the founding members, both as founding member of the Global Covenant, but also as a founding member of this Research and Innovation Technical Working Group. We wanted to implement this and what it means. Implement it means that making sure that cities are at the heart of the research. One term that colleagues coined two decades ago, it was case study syndrome in the sense that in many cases when you are researching cities, we pick cities, do this study, and the results are being published and sometimes remain behind the payroll of the publishers. But is it actually fitting into policy making? Probably not. So we realized that it's really important to have cities on board from the very beginning to make sure that this transition from grand theory to ground practice happens hand in hand with cities from the very beginning. And that's the only hope that we can have those information and knowledge will be really co-created and actionable for cities.

[00:04:35.510] � Kes McCormick
I think that final term you use there around co-creation and about bringing researchers and practitioners together in a way where both of them are influencing the process and decisions around research is just so important. Look, I mean, is there a specific city around the world, anywhere in the world, that inspires you in relation to research and climate action and why is it inspirational?

[00:04:58.670] � Pourya Salehi
That's definitely, for me, as a knowledge worker, is really hard to answer. I just wanted to build upon the previous note that I mentioned regarding Global Research and Action Agenda. We held a conference co organized by UNHABITAT and GCoM. And ICLEI was one of the core partners last year in October. Which the primary output of that one was the updated Global Research and Action Agenda, which is actually this document was launched along with City Research and Innovation Agenda, which is the translation of that academic agenda to a more policy agenda for local leaders. Both these documents were launched a few days ago at ICLEI Global Research Symposium. And what happened there was very interesting is like cities were there to make a project pitch in the sense that they have found their way to really make this intervention and find it very valuable. So in that space, as an example, we had high level city officials making a pitch about different projects. So I kind of like this proactive approach by city officials that they want to engage with academics and not only waiting for academics to approach, but when it comes to favourite cities, many cities comes to my mind from Newcastle in Australia, depending on the context for the transition work. But particularly I would like to highlight Berkshire in the UK. Like two thirds of municipalities in the UK. They basically placed a climate emergency and they sort of committed to become net zero by 2030. But one of the challenges is like to be able to maintain the municipal services and then also getting there, becoming carbon neutral and net zero by 2030. They need billions of investments, right? And it cannot be feasible without new sources of funding. So what they did actually was this Community Municipal Investment or CMI that they basically through that wanted to mobilize citizens funding to address climate action at the local level and for that they used some crowd-funding platforms and interesting enough, the community was fully on board and what they had set as a target, they achieved even much earlier than the deadline. And I think that was a very good example and inspired myself as a continent solution to funding and financing climate action.

[00:07:27.030] � Kes McCormick
Look, there's some fantastic examples. I know how hard it is to choose, like one example from around the world because the fact is there are cities all over the world that are working on these issues. Just a final question. If there was a policy maker standing here, a national policy maker, or perhaps a multinational company, what support would you ask for cities working on climate change?

[00:07:47.390] � Pourya Salehi
That's a very good question. I guess I would differentiate and distinguish between these two parties. When you're talking about national policy makers who potentially have more resources in hand and are positioned to enable local governments. Perhaps the best would be asking them to provide support and type of infrastructure that is hard or very costly for a local government to put in place and then they can put it in place for many cities in their country and knowing that everything will happen within the city and cities are at the forefront of dealing with climate change impact. So enablement and empowerment from different resources, including financial resources, would be perhaps my ask. But when it comes to multinational companies. Perhaps the best is like really looking into the mechanisms of mobilizing resources. Making sure that that's not green washing. But actually that's part of the corporate social responsibility to put forward and support city led research. Knowing that that would be generating solid information for cities to make decision and use their resources in the most optimal way to move towards more sustainable communities.

[00:09:09.590] � Kes McCormick
Thanks so much for being here with us today. Fantastic insights, lots to think about research, cities and climate change.

[00:09:15.960] � Pourya Salehi
Thanks so much for having me.

[00:09:30.510] � Kes McCormick
Once again, we thank our guest for joining us on this episode of Talking Transformations, a new podcast collection by the IIIEE at Lund University.�In addition, we produce a monthly podcast called �Advancing Sustainable Solutions�, available wherever you listen to podcasts.�This mini-series is produced in collaboration with the podcast team of �Advancing Sustainable Solutions�, and supported by ICLEI and Viable Cities. ICLEI, also known as Local Governments for Sustainability, is a global network of more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Viable Cities is a strategic innovation program in Sweden focusing on the transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities.�If you want to learn more about ongoing research and activities, visit our website at www.iiiee.lu.se. And, stay tuned for new episodes of Talking Transformations.