Clear policy signals by international organisations and national governments remain essential, however, important decisions are increasingly being made beyond this, fostering opportunities for climate action within localities: decisions about low-carbon business opportunities, renewable energy investment, urban transport, energy management, buildings efficiency and the management of climate risks.

It is increasingly recognised that the delivery of climate policy ultimately happens through place-based initiatives at the local level (Galarraga et al 2011, 2017), and it has been widely argued that effective delivery of actions to promote low-carbon and climate-resilient development will require experiments with new governance arrangements (Bulkeley et al. 2019; Castan Broto 2020; Jordan et al. 2018; Kivimaa et al, 2017). In particular, processes that engage and harness the combined energies of public, private and third sectors (Gouldson et al, 2016) are required.

PCAN and the RGS Climate Change Research Group are hosting this half day virtual mini conference to bring together international scholars working on a range of topics relating to local climate praxis and to discuss the challenges bridging climate theory and practice within place-based climate action.

Programme

14.00-14.05: Welcome and overview of event

14.05-14.20: Keynote: Prof. John Barry, PCAN & Queen's University Belfast

14.20-15.20: Break out Sessions 1 (Choose either 1.1 or 1.2)

Breakout Session 1.1: Applied research on the local climate praxis

Suay Melisa Ozkula (University of Sheffield), Judging digital “place” in global climate change initiatives
Rory Fitzpatrick (University of Leeds), "How has climate change mattered to you over the past 3 months?" - Results from a survey during the UK COVID-19 lockdown.
Bob Walley (University of Central Lancashire), Raising awareness of climate change creatively through free and accessible community engagement festivals
Andrew Walker (Local Government Information Unit), The Return of Locally Led Place Shaping

Breakout Session 1.2: What community means in local climate action

Lucy Stone (Our Common Climate), Common ownership of the green economy; how collective decision-making and ownership models could accelerate climate progress and address inequality.
Rebecca Willis/David Tyfield (Lancaster University), Turning targets into action: tackling climate change in a local context
Wolfgang Haupt (Leibniz-Institute for Research on Society and Space, Germany), Explaining climate policy pathways of unlikely city pioneers: the case of the German city of Remscheid
Rebecca Wells (LSE), The use of Citizen Assemblies and Juries in cities as a deliberative tool for addressing Climate Change: A comparative case study of Oxford and Leeds

15.20-15.30: Break

15.30-16.30: Break out Sessions 2 (Choose either 2.1 or 2.2)

Break out Session 2.1: Innovative forms of local engagement

Peter Harper (University of Bath), A local plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030
Robert Connell (The University of Edinburgh), How can city climate commissions mobilise the importance of place in encouraging private sector action on climate change?
Ellie Murtagh (Sniffer/Adaptation Scotland), Unpacking 'place' in Place Based Adaptation - A Framework for effective place based adaptation in practice
Erika Russell (University of Surrey), Developing a carbon baseline to support multi-stakeholder, multi-level governance at a county level

Break out Session 2.2: Critical perspectives on place-based climate action

Rebecca Sandover (University of Exeter), Contrasting public and political actors’ views of Citizen’s Assemblies: An exploration of the perceived legitimacy and value of deliberative public engagement on climate change
Clare Wharmby (Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation), Understanding the carbon impact of city-wide decision-making
Zoe Robinson (Keele University), Universities as places of climate praxis
James Derounian (Society of Local Council Clerks/ De Montfort University) and Elisabeth Skinner (Society of Local Council Clerks), Enacting “place-based initiatives at the local level”: The actuality and potentiality of 10,000 ultra-local councils

(Abstracts can be viewed here: https://pcancities.org.uk/abstracts-local-climate-praxis-conference-2020)

16.30-16.55: Plenary discussion and closing keynote from Professor Vanesa Castan Broto, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield

16.55-17.00: Closing remarks

Registrations are closed

Local climate praxis: bridging the gap between theory and practice on local