Post COP26: What’s next for cities?

Full Panel
Transcript

Note to readers: This video session was transcribed using auto-transcribing software. Manual editing was undertaken in an effort to improve readability and clarity. Questions or concerns with the transcription can be directed to events@canurb.org with “transcription” in the subject line.

Full Audience
Chatroom Transcript

Note to reader: Chat comments have been edited for ease of readability. The text has not been edited for spelling or grammar. For questions or concerns, please contact events@canurb.org with “Chat Comments” in the subject lin

From Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://canurb.org/citytalk

00:14:11 Canadian Urban Institute: Welcome! Folks, please change your chat settings to “everyone” so everyone can see your comments. Attendees: where are you tuning in from today?
00:14:43 Mary Ann Neary: Hello from Toronto, ON
00:14:46 Christopher Moise: Ottawa Canada
00:14:52 Abigail Slater (she/her): Hello from Tkaranto. So interested in hearing your debrief on COP26. And thank you for acknowledging our fellow Canadians out West
00:14:58 Julieta Perucca: Hello! This is Julieta, Deputy Director of The Shift logging in from Geneva Switzerland
00:15:12 Laura Schnurr: Greetings/bonjour from Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka people.
00:15:12 Graham Wilson: Hello from Oshawa, Ontario
00:15:16 Canadian Urban Institute: HOUSEKEEPING: • A friendly zoom reminder, you can see and hear us but we can’t see or hear you • We are recording today’s session and will share it online at www.citytalkcanada.ca • We hope this session is as interactive as possible, so please feel free to share comments, references, links or questions in the chat
00:15:22 Bryan Buggey: Hi from Vancouver! And what a pleasure to see Julia Langer on the screen!
00:15:35 Kary Fell: Hello from Kelowna, BC
00:15:41 Barbara Davies: York Region
00:15:46 Laura Wall: Laura from London ON
00:15:56 Matthew Sweet: Hello from Mississauga, ON
00:16:00 Kirsten Frankish: Hello from Whitby, ON
00:16:28 Lisa Mactaggart: greetings from Guelph on the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit
00:16:35 Diana (she/her): Hello from the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, also called Vancouver.
00:16:42 Emily Cormier: Hello from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
00:16:53 Jenna Dutton: Hello from Victoria, BC
00:16:54 Christene LeVatte: Hello from Nova Scotia, Canada – I am with the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association as Government Relations and Advocacy Chair. we have a particular interest in the urban forest in our Canadian cities and larger municipalities. Really looking forward to this discussion.
00:17:00 Caroline Taylor: Hello from Windsor
00:17:02 Irene Hauzar: Hello from Toronto, ON
00:17:12 Peter Duncan: Hello from Halifax!
00:17:16 Adrienne Kotler: Hello from a Canadian living abroad (in southern Germany)
00:17:33 Steve Sutherland: Hello to all from the folks here at Trellis Transit in Aurora, ON, where we believe that Trellis can provide a preferred alternative to legacy tarmac-based transit.
00:17:35 Baldwin Hum: Hi all from BC
00:17:42 Sarah Warren: Hello from Pickering, ON
00:17:44 Anna Kapusta: hello from Victoria,BC
00:17:53 Anam Khan: Hi from Windsor, ON
00:17:54 Lauren Vraets: Hello from Hamilton, ON
00:17:55 Andre C: Hello from Markham
00:18:31 Rick Ciccarelli: Hello from the Toronto neighbourhood of Mount Dennis!
00:18:32 Teti Argo: Hi, from Toronto
00:18:37 Simon Blakeley: Hello from North Bay, Ontario
00:18:40 Gagan Batra: Hello from Brantford, Ontario!
00:18:57 Harleen Kahlon: Hello from Toronto
00:19:25 Baldwin Hum: COP26 was, to say the least, disappointing. There was no urgency.
00:19:30 Kevin Scanlon: Hello from Prince Edward County
00:19:37 Sonia Sanita: Hi from Vaughan, Ontario
00:20:38 Andre C: Isn’t the answer simple?
00:20:50 Canadian Urban Institute: Francis Fong, Managing Director at TD Economics Francis Fong is Managing Director of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) research at TD Economics. He produces a wide range of research covering both the economic and social implications of the clean energy transition. Francis previously served as chief economist at CPA Canada. He has also conducted research on a wide variety of topics on social and economic issues including on immigration policy, youth unemployment, income inequality, housing, financial markets, and labour market issues.
00:21:01 Baldwin Hum: It seemed that governments/representatives at COP26 were happy to let businesses and the private sector initiate and lead the changes. This is exactly how we got here in the first place.
00:21:27 Canadian Urban Institute: Freddie Huppé Campbell, Global Hub Program Coordinator, Indigenous Clean Energy and Co-host and producer of Decolonizing Power podcast Freddie Huppé Campbell is a proud Métis woman who currently resides on the traditional, unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin nation, also known as Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. She leads Indigenous Clean Energy’s Global Hub, focusing on the acceleration of renewable energy microgrids in Indigenous, island, coastal and remote communities as a core component of just, global climate action. She is the co-host and co-producer of the “Decolonizing Power” podcast series featuring a global network of leaders, including young innovators, sprinting toward a sustainable, fair and impactful clean energy future.
00:21:38 Obaid Shah: Journey from “why” to “how”
00:25:05 Canadian Urban Institute: Agathe Cavicchioli, Head of Advocacy at C40 and the Global Cities Lead at COP26 High-Level Climate Champions Team Agathe works closely with the Head of City Diplomacy to drive strategic and effective engagement of the C40 network in global climate policy dialogue and to maximise its impact in the global political stage. Prior to joining C40, Agathe managed low-carbon development projects for an international local government network and supported the network’s global climate advocacy strategy and engagement in the UNFCCC process.
00:25:16 Canadian Urban Institute: Agathe has an interdisciplinary background in climate science, international climate policy and urban planning. Her experience includes research and consulting for international organizations, NGOs, consultancies, local governments and research institutes in Europe, the US, Brazil and Bangladesh. Agathe holds a MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University and joint Master degrees in European Affairs and Urban Sustainable Development from Sciences Po Lille and Lille University of Science and Technology.
00:28:07 Graham Wilson: Can you clarify what “NDCs” refers to?
00:28:35 Freddie Huppé Campbell (she/her): Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs
00:28:42 Graham Wilson: Thank you
00:28:55 Steve Sutherland: I agree with Freddie – COP26 failed to define action critically important to meet 2030 targets. There is no reason we cannot rip up all urban tarmac to foster the return of nature – trees, foliage, and stress-free cycling and walking paths. Trellis pods for transit of people, goods, and services above are lightweight autonomous systems which are a fraction of the weight of legacy systems like LRTs weighing 48,000 kg running in tarmac and concrete corridors dividing communities. Time to rid cities of tarmac.
00:29:54 Canadian Urban Institute: Julia Langer, CEO, The Atmospheric Fund Julia has held senior leadership positions in the environmental sector for nearly 30 years, managing campaigns and organizations, defining strategy and policy, and inspiring public and private action to address air pollution and climate change. Julia leads TAF’s staff in advancing the organization’s solutions to climate and air pollution, and with support from TAF’s Investment Committee, oversees the fiscal integrity of TAF’s endowment. Julia is a recipient of the 2016 Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence for her environment and climate work and a member of the federal government’s Generation Energy Council.
00:31:41 Baldwin Hum: Cities are critical. But as (North American) cities have been designed and built, they are following a pattern of increasing consumption: consumption of land, capital, and other resources. How do we shift the growth trajectories for our cities such that we don’t continue to centre consumptive growth and move towards growth in an era of radical conservation?
00:32:08 allison ashcroft: C40 North America maintains the current list of Canadian signatories to the Cities Race to Zero, Agathe mentioned. At present there are 24 cities and Mayor Savage(Halifax) as Chair of BCMC has called on his peers to sign on to Cities Race to Zero. Halifax as signed on to both race to zero and race to resilience. here is list of Canadian city signatories https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_7NF-rigKJJj6X5PCrtOIltes2l5Y0ZSks5bpbJWBnk/edit
00:34:30 Abigail Slater (she/her): Can cities do what is necessary without provincial and federal support? 413 anyone?
00:34:43 Sharon SHUYA: Where the barriers to taking action discussed at any point in COP26?
00:34:48 Baldwin Hum: Transportation for instance is a major challenge for cities. Yes, we can shift to electrics or other cleaner fuels, but this disregards the resources consumed to continue to build out road and other infrastructure into the sprawling suburbs.
00:35:02 Andre C: We need to rebuild/reorganize our cities. They don’t scale adequately
00:35:42 Baldwin Hum: The mention of Hamilton speaks to the Abigail’s point about provincial/federal support. The provincial government just struck down (?) Hamilton’s proposal to contain urban growth.
00:35:48 allison ashcroft: To answer Mary’s Q, NDCs are Nationally Determined Contributions and they are a reporting requirement of all Parties to the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 5 yrs ago. NDCs must include Parties’ (country’s) targets, actions and progress for reduceing their fair share of global GHG reductions (globally 46% by 2030) in pursuit of climate neutrality by 2050 which is the central goal of the Paris agreement. NDCs presently are falling far short of what is needed and using the ratchet mechanism and accountability of NDCs, Parties are required/expected tto be enhancing their ambition/targets with their every 5 yr updates of NDCs
00:37:36 Obaid Shah: How many municipalities in Ontario (out of 444) have declared Climate Emergency? I Know Windsor did.
00:38:12 allison ashcroft: I co-authored with GCoM and working with GCoM’s Regional and Local COntributions working group including UNDP, UNEP, UNHabitat, UCLG, LGMA, Giz. This Multilevel Climate Action Playbook sets the path for cities, city networks and national govts for integrating cities into the NDCs and NDC implementation and budgets https://www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/press/the-multilevel-climate-action-playbook-for-local-and-regional-governments/
00:39:00 Laura Wall: London has but the “plan” has yet to be released – many frustrations
00:39:48 Caroline Taylor: Yes Windsor has declared a Climate Emergency but they are moving forward with relocating the city’s only hospital to a farm field 3 kilometres beyond the city’s airport where no one lives to anchor more sprawl.
00:40:09 Julia Beresford: Would one of the simplest answers to reducing emissions, in cities and generally, not be to only allow energy suppliers to commission low-carbon or carbon neutral generation facilities from now on? Since this would impact all scope 2 emissions of every single entity accessing the electrical grid.
00:40:17 Linda Williams: Hi from Winnipeg. Could we still work on the old urban sprawl which causes so much vehicle usage, promote free public transportation and electric vehicles and provide infrastructure for this. And fine large business polluters and promote and provide incentives to green initiatives and jobs.
00:40:41 allison ashcroft: par 29 : 29. Recalls Article 3 and Article 4, paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 11, of the Paris Agreement and requests Parties to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022, taking into account different national circumstances;the Glasgow Pact
00:41:48 allison ashcroft: re including cities in the global stocktake, here is language in the Glasgow Pact 76. Welcomes the start of the global stocktake, and expresses its determination for the process to be comprehensive, inclusive and consistent with Article 14 of the Paris Agreement and decision 19/CMA.1, in the light of paragraph 5 above; 77. Encourages the high-level champions to support the effective participation of non-Party stakeholders in the global stocktake;
00:42:03 David Hanna: Carolyn, Windsor has to move beyond letterhead slogans.
00:42:56 Agathe Cavicchioli: The preamble of the Glasgow Climate Pact expresses “appreciation (…) for the increased targets and actions announced and the commitments made to work together and with non-Party stakeholders to accelerate sectoral action by 2030”. This is a clear nod to the COP26 Presidency / High-Level Champions Breakthroughs on sectoral action commitments by 2030 that C40 has been pioneering in the form of Declarations since 2018. (Declarations: https://www.c40.org/what-we-do/raising-climate-ambition/high-impact-declarations/)
00:43:17 Agathe Cavicchioli: The role of local and regional governments in the implementation of the Paris Agreement is further acknowledged in Art. 88 (“recognizes the important role of non-Party stakeholders, including civil society, indigenous peoples, local communities, youth, children, local and regional governments and other stakeholders, in contributing to progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement”) and “their effective participation of non-Party stakeholders in the global stocktake” is encouraged in Art. 77. These are major steps towards a more formal inclusion of cities in the processes of the Paris Agreement, and lays the foundation for 2022-2023 city advocacy in around the Global Stocktake and the next round of NDCs.
00:43:43 Luis Patricio: There is no way we will achieve our targets without prioritizing active transportation. Bikes need to be taken way more seriously
00:43:48 allison ashcroft: he Glasgow Pact re collaboration with non-state actors (non-Parties and how important they are), also supports further funding ans support to the engagement, capacity building and technical mechanisms for reporting
00:43:51 allison ashcroft: 88. Also recognizes the important role of non-Party stakeholders, including civil society, indigenous peoples, local communities, youth, children, local and regional governments and other stakeholders, in contributing to progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement; 89. Welcomes the improvement of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action23 for enhancing ambition, the leadership and actions of the high-level champions, and the work of the secretariat on the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action platform to support accountability and track progress of voluntary initiatives; 90. Also welcomes the high-level communiqué24 on the regional climate weeks and encourages the continuation of regional climate weeks where Parties and non-Party stakeholders can strengthen their credible and durable response to climate change at the regional level;
00:44:05 Luis Patricio: At least they were acknowledged in the 11th hour: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2021/11/10/electric-cars-wont-save-the-planet-say-transport-experts-at-cop26/?sh=66c290527978
00:44:07 Baldwin Hum: Agreed Linda, transportation and its reduction is critical.
00:45:05 Baldwin Hum: Luis: yes! And compact and more complete communities are key to this. How do we best shift from sprawl to community in our existing urban areas?
00:46:07 Jordan Grant: One of the key infrastructure investments that is needed is changing to a smart electrical grid that will enable small-scale distributed electric generation and storage. Cities that have their own electrical distribution utilities must play a key role in implementing this. Provinces need to set up the regulatory and pricing framework. This is a hugely-complicated undertaking. What is happening in Canada to bring the three levels together to develop and implement such a plan?
00:47:20 Luis Patricio: @Baldwin. Good question. I don’t think it is a linear process, steps need to be taken simultaneously in multiple fronts
00:48:25 Andre C: Need transparent and inclusionary zoning
00:48:27 Baldwin Hum: To Francis’ point, the current system is set up such that the most vulnerable and least resourced people and organisations are the ones that are paying for the failures of our system, climate crisis or otherwise.
00:48:28 allison ashcroft: CUSP has been leading the work in Canada for a number of years to push for cities’ integration into national climate policy (NDC, PanCanadian Framework, Healthy Environment, Healthy Economies plans, etc), Cities have been excluded from the development of these plans but also aren’t even recognized as ciritcal actors in these plans. Here is a list of all the ways CUSP in last 2 yrs has been making waves and working with partners like GCoM, SFU Wosk, etc. have been creating the mechanisms for aggregtating and rolling up city inventories, plan actions, risks/hazards, and financial needs for implementing their rigourously modelled, localized, multiyear, multiactor, multisector plans https://cuspnetwork.ca/initiative-1/
00:48:51 Luis Patricio: @Jordan. I think Freddie here on the panel has a few good examples on how this can be done
00:49:25 David Hanna: Business reports quarterly, perhaps that is the next stage for Climate Mitigation (from yearly)
00:49:46 Graham Wilson: If you want to see ground-level view of how city design affects active transportation modeshare, while also dunking on “Fake London” (London, Ontario), check out Not Just Bikes: https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes/videos
00:50:31 Kevin Scanlon: I remember in Toronto when they brought in composting and recycling, there was little enthusiasm on the part of many parents. Too much bother, they said. But it was the children who pushed their parents to do something and now it is fully accepted,
00:51:21 Luis Patricio: Thanks for sharing that @Graham. I highly recommend that youtube channel
00:51:42 Andre C: Maybe we need to demand our voice be heard
00:52:07 allison ashcroft: CUI, CUSP, C40 and others have been working with Shauna Sylvester at SFU Wosk to pull together two 3hr dialogues on the topic of Cities role and need for greater recognition and collboartion from the fed govt. they also held daily briefings from Glasgow that were city-centred. We haven’t yet seen policy shift in canada to include cities, but there has been a MAJOR shift in the converstation and calls to action from influential voices to localize climate action and finance and create direct relations with city governments. https://www.citiescop26.ca/
00:52:11 Luis Patricio: 🙌
00:53:00 allison ashcroft: Indigenous Clean Energy and their Catalyst 20/20 program is major contributor to the Indigenous energy justice https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/
00:53:26 allison ashcroft: here’s the program https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/ice-2020-catalysts/
00:54:34 allison ashcroft: Natural Resources Canada’s Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities program, a $220-million program to reduce reliance on diesel in rural, remote and Indigenous communities by deploying and demonstrating renewable energy technologies, encouraging energy efficiency and building local skills and capacity. The program is part of the government’s Investing in Canada infrastructure plan, a more than $180-billion investment in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and Canada’s rural and northern communities. Canada’s strengthened climate plan, A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, ensures Canada will remain a world leader in clean power. Canada is investing an additional $300 million over five years to help rural, remote and Indigenous communities, currently reliant on fossil fuels, to transition to clean, reliable energy by 2030.
00:54:37 Ian Meredith: This is an awesome water conservation campaign out of Denver CO…could something like this not be done by other municipalities for energy conservation/low carbon? https://www.denverwater.org/about-us/history/use-only-what-you-need/use-only-what-you-need-photo-gallery
00:54:52 amanda sebris: Breadcrumbs In fairy tales are associated with disobedient children. ‘Bread’ – the staff of life – cannot save the children in Hansel and Gretel because the children acted independently and stepped outside of the circle of obedience. What ‘THEY’ at Glasgow COP26 (the government and big business) do not remember is in that in the end the children save themselves.
00:57:17 allison ashcroft: The preamble to the Paris Agreement refers in a number of places to Indigenous Peoples alonside local communities and other subnational actors and stakeholders; however, in its 29 Articles, there is only one specific reference to Indigenous Peoples. This reference is contained within the adaptation section of Article 7.
00:58:05 allison ashcroft: The Local Communities and Indigenous People Platform (LCIPP) was established after the Paris Agreement, as a recognition of the need to strengthen the knowledge, technologies, practices and actions of local communities and indigenous peoples, in relation to climate change. COP 24 saw the launch of the Facilitative Working Group (FWG) for LCIPP, which is tasked with scaling up the experiences of local communities and indigenous peoples when responding to climate change. The facilitative working group is a step towards a stronger recognition of local communities and indigenous peoples as key actors within the UNFCCC process. https://unfccc.int/LCIPP#eq-3
00:58:48 Ian Meredith: What SPECIFIC actions are you promoting in the buildings sector? Municipalities have lots of power via zoning, permitting, tax incentives, etc. , but everything you are bringing up seems very high-level
00:59:48 Steve Sutherland: I sincerely don’t want to offend anyone by controversial comments, but Francis, I respectfully disagree with your suggestion that cities aren’t able to drive the immediate adoption of solutions to the Climate Crisis. I agree with other panelists that see municipalities as having power to bring together their communities to engender truly inclusive innovative solutions.

Certain cities, such as Hamilton, cannot continue to hide behind ‘business as usual’ and I strongly agree with Julia that cities have direct control of decisions regarding energy, buildings and transportation.
01:00:04 Baldwin Hum: In provinces like Ontario, municipalities aren’t able to fully implement any plans, since the province can come in and arbitrarily change those plans at a whim.
01:00:13 allison ashcroft: there are 3 distinct and inter-related purposes of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (adopted in para 5 of decision 1/CP.23): 1)“To strengthen the knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts of local communities and indigenous peoples related to addressing and responding to climate change”; 2) To facilitate “the exchange of experiences and the sharing of best practices on mitigation and adaptation in a holistic and integrated manner” (also included in para 135 of the decision by which the Paris Agreement was adopted, decision 1/CP.21); and 3)“To enhance the engagement of local communities and indigenous peoples in the UNFCCC process”.
01:01:19 Paul Young: Had good success with this globally recognized process (to start convo) – a framework for the faciliation – e.g., we worked towards complete communities & complete streets https://planh.ca/big-picture/how-build-healthy-communities
01:01:42 allison ashcroft: check out the sectoral emissions of Canada’s largest cities. we’ve visualized them here for comparison between the profiles of cities but also so they can be aggregated and rolled up to show the significance of these cities in their provincial and national emissions for Canada (as reported to the UN in April2021). https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/cityclimatedatainsights/viz/EmissionsbySectorinCanada/SectoralEmissions
01:02:41 allison ashcroft: 41% of Canada’s emissions come from the transportation, buildings and waste sector
01:02:52 Utha Thurairajah: Carbon dioxide exists in the Earth’s atmosphere at a concentration of approximately 0.04 percent by volume. If so, can anyone in the panel justify the global warming claim by Carbon dioxide?
01:03:16 Baldwin Hum: Thanks Allison! A striking part of that is the role of transport.
01:03:48 Baldwin Hum: Utha, what exactly are you asking here?
01:04:05 Teti Argo: how banks involves in climate responsive projects in cities so that it Is bankable ?
01:04:07 allison ashcroft: the 23 cities that report in CDP which we visualized accont for 52% of emissions from buildings in Canada
01:04:48 allison ashcroft: these same cities nearly a 1/4 of national emissions from transportation and 20% of waste
01:05:41 Baldwin Hum: Francis: Reinsurance has been predicting and pricing the challenges of climate change for decades. How is it that the rest of the business and finance communities have not followed but rather treated everything as business-as-usual?
01:06:01 Graham Wilson: Utha, that’s a bit of a Red Herring and not a valuable use of the panel’s limited time – easy enough to review the body of research: https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/basics-of-climate-change/
01:06:36 allison ashcroft: here’s our visualizations re electricity mix. while montreal and bc cities enjoy nearly 100% renewable hydro, Edmonton, Calgary, saskatoon and Halifax are still majority reliant on fossil fuel generated electricity https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/cityclimatedatainsights/viz/CanadasElectricityMix/MergedStory
01:07:51 Baldwin Hum: Alison, is there any look at the environmental impacts of electricity generation? I’m thinking of the ecological degradation caused by even ‘clean’ projects such as hydroelectric dams and the additional social degradation of the megaprojects such as Site C in BC.
01:08:22 allison ashcroft: the four cities of Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax and saskatoon generate 25% of Canada’s emissions from electricity. how are these cities suppose to meet their ghg reduction targets if senior govt doesn’t decarbonize these grids. that needs to be major priority and accelerated
01:08:32 Julia Beresford: Allison, I completely agree that the electrical grid is the primary aspect to focus on lowering emissions. We had a preliminary estimate that the atlantic loop project could reduce emissions by up to 99%
01:08:37 Canadian Urban Institute: Keep the conversation going #citytalk @canurb You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our sessions at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk CUI extends a big thank you to TD for their support on CityTalk.
01:09:32 Canadian Urban Institute: COMING UP: Join us on Dec 2 at noon ET for our next CityTalk “Expanding Housing Options: How can we improve housing diversity in our cities?” where we will discuss how we can support “missing middle” housing, such as duplexes, triplexes, and walk-up apartments across low-rise residential neighbourhoods. For more information and to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cKLCh2c7SyST6Xq71ucTpg
01:09:34 Baldwin Hum: We’ve been shielding businesses and investors and citizens from the full costs of their (in)actions. What are organizations doing to fully recognize the impacts and costs of their actions on the world, and how are they being made accountable for those costs? Externalities don’t cut it anymore.
01:09:53 Obaid Shah: How much of a “Political correctness” is in play for cities growth management plans/strategies?
01:10:46 allison ashcroft: @baldwin there are lots of people that look at that, but I do not look at upstream enviro impacts of hydro dams, of course there is environmental impact but also social justice issues re the Indigenous and remote and rural communities directly impacted by these developments.
01:10:54 Julia Beresford: Baldwin for projects such as hydo etc. there is a requirement for 1:1 area remediation. So while there is environmental impact equivalent area is rehabilitated the same is said of fossil fuel sources except you can reduce emissions per kwh by up to 99%
01:11:34 Sarah Webb: Great discussion and insights — appreciate the critical thinking and continued motivation for our work in cities.
01:11:50 Andre C: Thanks!
01:12:00 Sarah Warren: Integrating messages about health and equity co-benefits of climate mitigation and adaptation is a strong motivator (also from an economic perspective). Public health is an important partner for municipalities as they engage in climate action work. Moreover, the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is a generational opportunity to make the fast, transformative and sustainable change required to meet the Paris agreement.
01:12:04 Julieta Perucca: Great discussion! Thanks to the panelists and CUI for organizing!
01:12:06 Steve Sutherland: I apologize in advance, but I can no longer mince words regarding cities such as Hamilton who deliberately pursue business-as-usual. Hamilton was expected to be the launch of Trellis Transit – but they refused to even consider Trellis. They decided to plow ahead with their $1B LRT (now $3.4B LRT) knowing it would massively increase their emissions and would not inclusively serve their city. Trellis proposed 300 stops and connections – then with $3.4B could run 150km. Hamilton wouldn’t even meet to discuss…. very sad.
01:12:11 Baldwin Hum: Thanks Julia, agreed that rehab/remediation is good, but ultimately it seems that reduction rather than shifting mode is going to be the way forwards.
01:12:15 Sarah Warren: Thank you to all presenters!
01:12:37 Christopher Moise: Great thought Julia. Change our approach, the current one isn’t making the change we need.
01:12:38 Mahmud Rezaei: Thanks !
01:12:38 Laura Schnurr: Thank you Mary for hosting this great conversation and to all the panelists for your thoughts!
01:12:39 Sharon SHUYA: So much great knowledge and resources shared. I agree we need to continue the conversation. Thank you!
01:12:41 amanda sebris: Thank you for this gathering and sharing – insightful and wonderfully promising.
01:12:47 Steve Sutherland: Thanks so much!!! Great dialog!!
01:12:47 Graham Wilson: Thank you very much!
01:12:49 Baldwin Hum: Thanks to the panel for today