Cities as Transformative Agents for Global Sustainability

The battle for sustainability will be won, or lost, predominantly in cities of the Global South. This lecture considers the need to reconceptualise cities as transformative agents for global sustainability. Drawing on more than two decades of research, Xuemei Bai presents recent advances in this area. in conversation with Harini Nagendra, she explores how such reconceptualisation can inform, and reshape, urban policy and planning practices. Rapid urbanization over the past several decades has been among the most significant social transformations of our time, with far-reaching economic, environmental, and cultural implications. Cities now stand at the forefront of global change, tasked not only with addressing a wide range of local and regional challenges but also with mitigating and adapting to broader environmental shifts, including climate change. As a result, cities are increasingly recognized as important subnational actors within international science and policy arenas, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This session is part of the Let’s Talk Climate Change Talk series.