As we aim toward a 1.5 degree future, we need to fundamentally shift the way we lead our cities. One substantial change is that cities need to look to a new form of governance - one that places climate action at its heart. A critical tool for cities is a climate budget: a governance system that offers a way for cities to turn climate commitments into funded and measurable actions across their government. C40 recently worked with a group of international cities to adapt climate budgeting to their own unique urban and social contexts, and this in turn will support other cities who can more easily adopt the policy now that they can learn from these proven examples.
Featured guests:
Catrin Robertsen is Head of Climate Budgeting at C40, a new programme supporting cities to improve their governance systems to operationalize and deliver climate targets. Before joining C40, Catrin worked for the Climate Agency for the City of Oslo as the lead technical advisor on Oslo’s climate budget. Prior experiences include national emissions inventories and impact assessments at the Norwegian Environment Agency. Catrin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a Master’s degree in Economics, specializing in development and natural resource economics, from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Trond Vedeld currently works at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at Oslo Metropolitan University as a research professor in urban and international studies. Trond does research in Political Economy, Public Administration and Urban Politics, Climate Governance, and Climate services and has published extensively on issues of political economy, public administration and urban politics, climate governance, and collaborative governance/co-creation in European and African cities.
Links for this episode:
C40 Knowledge Hub's Landing Page for all things climate-budget related
“Why New York and London are betting on climate budgets” by C40 Chair, Mayor Sadiq Khan of London and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City
Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research
"How to lead collaborative governance for climate transformation: A guide for city leaders and decision makers", by Hege Hofstad and Trond Vedeld, Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
"Oslo is Demonstrating Ambitious Leadership through its Climate Budget" by Governing Mayor Raymond Johansen, Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy
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 produced by the University of Toronto Press and Cities 1.5 is supported by C40 Cities and the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. You can sign up to the Centre newsletter here. https://thecentre.substack.com/
Our executive producers are Calli Elipoulos and Peggy Whitfield.
Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/
Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/
Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/