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?�

[00:01:00.950] � Angie Fyfe
My name is Angie Fyfe. I'm the Executive Director at ICLEI USA. My job is to help the team in the USA provide services to cities, counties, and regional governments.

[00:01:11.540] � Kes McCormick
Look, it sounds like a pretty interesting job, possibly a challenging job as well. In the context of the USA, I mean, what role do you think cities can play in climate action?

[00:01:20.630] � Angie Fyfe
Yeah, cities are key, obviously, to what needs to be done on the ground, because, of course, solutions that are implemented are implemented at the city level, even if it's a state or a national initiative and policy, of course, it's happening on the ground in individual buildings and individual homes and in our transport. So cities are just so key. And of course, we believe that any city of any size in any demographic across the USA can be involved. One of the really fun things about my job is we use salesforce as our CRM platform. And every morning, the first thing I see when I open up my mailbox, my email box, is a list of all of the interactions that the team has had on the previous day with individual members in the ICLEI USA network. And so it's just great to see, wow, look at what happened in Wyoming. Who would think that Wyoming would be involved in this type of work? They're a very fossil fuel rich community. And so, of course, when we see something bubbling up in a community like that, it's very exciting. The level of support that we provide is anywhere from helping a community to just get started and understand what to do first, to working with very advanced communities like Washington, DC on some of their more innovative policies and programs. In that regard, we can connect those cities to international cities, to take them, of course, outside of the USA. To share best practices, but also to learn from others.

[00:02:56.450] � Kes McCormick
Yeah, I mean, it's really fun to hear about what you're saying about bubbling up from below and seeing all the activity and the great diversity in cities in the USA. If I asked you to pick, like, a specific initiative by cities in the USA. Or a particular city that really excites you, what would you say?

[00:03:12.930] � Angie Fyfe
Last year our focus was really on the Race to Zero. And the Race to Zero is a global campaign to get cities, as well as universities and businesses, to commit to science based targets by 2030 and also to achieve zero emissions by 2050. So we worked with 138 cities in 2021 and we analyzed their greenhouse gas data. We have a software tool. It's called Clear Path. We use it to help communities to set their targets and plan their climate mitigation strategy. So we had a chance to look at these 138 communities. We found that on average, a USA community needs to reduce its emissions by 63% by 2030 in order to meet the Paris Agreement temperature targets. And of course, when I saw those numbers, I took a big gulp and I thought, my goodness, how are we going to do that? But the amazing thing is we then looked at, okay, what was that pathway? Is it achievable? And what we found is that, yes, it will take ambition, it will take an alignment of different levels of government, but we don't have to invent new technology. We don't have to come up with new policy instruments. Everything that we have is at our disposal. We really just need to act.

[00:04:35.030] � Kes McCormick
Now, look, it's a fantastic point you make about the fact that the technologies exist, the policies exist, there's even the money there to make it happen. And in the USA it is one of the most innovative economies in the world. So it is one of the places where you would expect that this could really take off. As you've talked about, there are many cities in the USA. But is there a specific city in the USA that really inspires you and you look at and say, wow, that's great work?

[00:04:59.030] � Angie Fyfe
Of course, this would be like picking one of your children as your favourite. However, I will say building on the science based targets and the Race to Zero work that we did last year. Hastings on Hudson, New York. This is a small community in the Hudson Valley just north of New York City. A terrific mayor. Nikki Armacost. Mayor Armacost, when she received our science based target information and a list of high impact actions that the city would need to implement to meet the target, she wanted to set up a conversation with our technical team. She wanted to really understand how those numbers were put together because it would be her responsibility, of course, to sell this to her council and ultimately to the city citizens, the residents there. She also understands the importance of resilience and building resilience into the Climate Action Plan as well. This, of course, we want to do with all cities is to ensure that they are addressing both mitigation and adaptation in an integrated way. Today, here at the Congress, we announced our Race to Resilience work, which is building on the Race to Zero work that we did last year. And so we'll be helping communities to set that resilience vision and do an assessment and figure out what their high impact actions are to become more resilient. So Mayor Armacost is terrific. She really digs into the technical pieces and then she's just got one of those warm and engaging personalities that goes out into the community and helps people understand why she's asking them to do certain things, what it means to them, how it will make their lives better and gets everyone on board.

[00:06:43.530] � Kes McCormick
Look, it's a great example but like you're saying, bringing together that kind of technical understanding or what needs to actually happen but combining it with kind of the soft side you might say or that that language is perhaps not the best but providing that other side kind of to bring people along, convince people that this race is worth being part of. Just a follow up question, I mean the race to zero, what exactly is the race to resilience?

[00:07:04.730] � Angie Fyfe
Well, it's also obviously a commitment first but then moving folks to action. So the idea here is to ensure that each city or local government across the world has a plan in place to address climate change impacts on the ground and hopefully this will then lead to further policy development and investment which is what really needs to happen. I mean, you mentioned the USA being a very innovative kind of country in terms of finance mechanisms. One of the things that we're really excited about working on the race to resilience is priority based budgeting because we really believe that local governments have within their existing budgets a lot of opportunity to address these climate goals and so we want to help them to better align their investments and their spending with addressing climate change.

[00:08:06.110] � Kes McCormick
Just a final question which links to what you were just saying. If there was a national policy maker here or perhaps a big international company that wanted to invest in cities or to support cities, I mean what kind of support would you ask for cities working on climate change?

[00:08:20.520] � Angie Fyfe
More women in leadership. I have lived in the USA my entire life. I've never lived in a city, a state or a country that has the highest elected official as a woman. Time for that. I think we've tried the other side. Let's see if we can make some progress with women leaders. I would say support women leaders number one. Number two, big fossil fuels. The key here is to get off of coal, then natural gas and transition to carbon free electricity and all energy sources as quickly as possible. And this is where there's a little bit of tension between local policy and national policy because yes, we can do lots of things at the local level but we really do need to address fossil fuels at that industry and national level.

[00:09:17.370] � Kes McCormick
Both your answers here are fantastic. I think the type of leadership you're talking about and having more women in leadership. I mean, it is so vital that we have leadership that's built around empathy and we have definitely tried men in leadership. It doesn't really work that fantastically. So great answer. Not what I was expecting. Thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for your insights. It's great to hear about what's happening in the USA.

[00:09:37.230] - Speaker 2
Thank you, Kes.

[00:09:51.250] � 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.