Transcript Community_Engagement..

Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient
in Adapting to Climate Change
Climate Change and Higher Education,
Erasmus Mundus Conference
February 2009, Robyn Duncan,
BA, MSc Candidate, Global History
London School of Economics and Political Science
Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Outline:
Cities and Towns are key to Climate Change Adaptation
Case Studies
•Transition Town Movement
•Okotoks, Canada
•Keene, USA
Conclusions
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Considerations
Government Policy
Which policies to implement?
What alternatives to promote?
How to achieve meaningful results?
How to ensure citizen buy-in?
When to phase in new policies?
Citizens
How to make a positive impact as an individual,how to
ensure governments implement the ‘right’ policies, how to shift to a
lighter impact lifestyle?
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Solutions
•Increased municipal involvement in creating adaptive strategies
•Increased citizen involvement
•Increased transparency
•Frequent program evaluation
•Is the adaptation on track?
•Has the initiative met its objectives?
•How can it be improved?
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
CO2 Trends: Increasing Temperatures
•IF greenhouse gas concentration remains at 2000 levels, we will experience a
rise in global temperature of 0.2C for the next 2 decades.
•But emissions keep rising!
•IPCC predicts between 1.4C - 5.8C increase by 2100.
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
“Plan ahead to use shocks as
catalysts for
positive change”
~Bryn Davidson, Dynamic Cities Project
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Municipalities have the opportunity to be on the
forefront of effective change through decisionmaking and direct involvement with citizens.
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Localization makes economic cents
•Climate change will cost the world a minimum of 5% GDP and severe
predictions could result in a loss of 30% world GDP
•£1 spent locally (local supplier) = £1.76 to the local economy
•£1 spent outside locality = £0.36 to the local economy
•(New Economics Foundation)
•Canada’s economy can accommodate 20% growth while still cutting CO2
levels to 1990 levels (Pembina Institute)
“Localisation provides an overarching strategic vision and makes sound
financial sense”.
(Prof. Colin Williams, School of Management, University of Sheffield
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Local Governments are Taking a Leadership Role
Energie-Citiés
•1000+ member municipalities
•25 different countries
•Covenant of Mayors:
•327 municipalities
signed to cut
their carbon emissions
by 20% by 2020
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Local Governments are Taking a Leadership Role
Cities for Climate Protection
• An
ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability initiative
•700+ municipalities
•Goal: become a Climate Resilient Community
•5 milestone process
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Local Governments are Taking a Leadership Role
Transition Town Movement
•Decrease dependence on oil and increase
community resilience
•Tackle climate change and peak oil
•137 signatory transition towns
•14 countries
•600+ at some stage of the
process
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Municipal Policies Have Big Impacts
•Local building codes
•Infrastructure
•Bylaws
•Waste removal
•Public space for green spaces and allotments
•Public transportation systems
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Community Resilience
“Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb
disturbance and reorganize while organizing change, so
as to still retain essentially the same function, structure,
identity and feedbacks”.
Walker et al.
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Community Resilience
“Resilience is the ability of a system, from individual
people to whole economies, to hold together and maintain
their ability to function in the face of change and shocks
from the outside”.
Rob Hopkins.
Founder, Transition Town Movement
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Community Resilience
“More than anything, the resilience that comes from a strong sense of
community will help your city meet the challenges of energy and climate
uncertainty”
Post Carbon Cities
“There’s no question whatsoever that community driven local
solutions will be essential…We will see a relocalisation of the way
in which we live…Undoubtedly one of the cheaper responses that
will be very effective is promoting local consumption local
production, local distribution”.
Andrew McNamara,
Queensland’s Minister
for Sustainability, Climate
Change and Innovation
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Transition Town Movement
3 Aspect of Resilience:
•Diversity
•Modularity
•Tightness of Feedback
Loops
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Transition Town Movement
Totnes, UK
•1st official transition town
•Working groups
•Full Community Mobilization
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Municipal Leadership
• Keene, New Hampshire, USA
• Okotoks, Alberta
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Okotoks, Alberta
• Sustainable Okotoks
*Limited growth based on established environmental carrying capacity
*4 pillars of growth
*10 key targets
•Achievements
*Numerous provincial, national and international awards
*30% per capita reduction in water consumption
*20% of space is open space
*Drake Landing Solar Program: 52 homes, provides 90% of space
heating, each house has a reduction of 5 Tonnes of CO2 per year
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Keene, New Hampshire, USA
•Joined Cities for Climate Protection in 2000
•Has achieved 3 of the 5 milestones in becoming a Climate Resilient
Community:
-Initiate a Climate Resiliency Effort
-Conduct a Climate Resiliency Study
-Develop a Climate Resilient Action Plan
•Collaboration with University of Washington
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Challenges
•Budgets
•Resources
•Jurisdiction
•Compliance
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Conclusions
• Municipalities MUST play an active role in adapting to and
mitigating the impacts of climate change.
• Municipalities have the opportunity to create real and
effective change
• Municipalities can strengthen their initiatives through networks,
collaboration with institutions of higher education, organizations, etc.
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Conclusions
• The municipal secret weapon of facing climate change is
COMMUNITY RESILIENCE
• Each community will follow their own unique strategy
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more
complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius
-and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite
direction.
Albert Einstein
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Community Engagement: An Essential Ingredient in Adapting to Climate Change
Thank you.
Questions?
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