The CBC News reports that a lone protester interrupted a speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he addressed an international conference on the French language in Quebec City today. The protester “began shouting and approaching the stage” before he was “grabbed by two security guards and hustled out of
Continue readingTag: cities
City charters—progress for Calgary and Edmonton?
The municipal level of government is the orphan of our political system. Cities are, under the Constitution, creatures of the provinces. In 1867, making municipalities wards of the provinces may have made sense; most people lived on farms or in small towns serving the farms. Eighty per cent of Canadians
Continue readingopenalex: Canadian Cities Lead on Planning for Climate Impacts
[I was suprised to see Canadian cities come out in the lead on adaptation. But also a bit disturbed to see just how nascent these efforts are, not just here, but globally. We’ve got a long way to go… @ sustainable cities canada] Canadian cities are world leaders in preparing
Continue readingopenalex: Canadian Cities Lead on Planning for Climate Impacts
[I was suprised to see Canadian cities come out in the lead on adaptation. But also a bit disturbed to see just how nascent these efforts are, not just here, but globally. We’ve got a long way to go… @ sustainable cities canada] Canadian cities are world leaders in preparing
Continue readingopenalex: Canadian Cities Lead on Planning for Climate Impacts
Not long ago people didn’t want to talk about adapting to climate change. In some cities – particularly in wealthy Northern countries – there was a sense of optimism and invulnerability. Discussing adaptation was also taboo; it was seen to take away from efforts to reduce our emissions. It was like admitting defeat.
But with global efforts to cap emissions failing, that began to change.
Iconic metropolises like New York and London began assessing the serious impact that an unstable climate would have on them. Late in 2010 planning guides were released in both the US and Canada to help all cities to identify their vulnerabilities and plan for new conditions.
The M.I.T. report, lead by Dr. JoAnn Carmin a top expert on urban adaptation planning, gives us our first view of the overall state of affairs. Based on survey responses from 468 cities on six continents the report provides interesting big picture conclusions, as well as more specific regional insights.
Climate Change Has Landed, But Resources Are Lacking
The first is that climate change has landed. Fully 79% of cities surveyed report that they are already feeling the impacts of stronger storms, longer droughts, flooding, and higher temperatures. This is leading to concerns over their ability to deal with increased future risks ranging from damage to municipal infrastructure, to the emergence of new diseases and declining housing safety.
Overall, despite having identified high levels of vulnerability, cities globally report that they lack the financial, institutional, and political resources that they need to respond effectively. Even basic preliminary work – like creating a vulnerability assessment – is stretching available resources. Sixty percent of cities are receiving no support whatsoever for their adaptation work. This is exacerbated by difficulty winning support for adaptation from local officials, and a perception that national governments know little about the impact that climate change will have on their cities.
Canadian Cities Leading (Minus the Feds and Business)
Canadian cities stand out in a number of ways. They report the second highest rate of engagement with adaptation planning. They also report relatively high rates of support for adaptation work from local politicians and government departments. As a result Canadian cities lead their peers in various aspects of planning for the impacts of climate change. Canadian cities also stand out for the relatively high level of financial support they receive from the Provinces.
While the Provinces may be supportive, the story is different when if comes to the Federal government. Seventy percent of Canadian cities reported that national government had only a partial grasp of the local impacts of climate change; 30% reported that the federal government had no understanding at all. The only country reporting lower confidence in national government was the United States.
Interestingly, Canada is also the only country where not a single municipality reported involving business in the adaptation planning processes. Our cities are also exceptionally unconcerned with the economic impacts of climate change. Only a small minority report being worried about potential losses of revenue, tourism, or jobs. Put those two together and it seems to me we may be overlooking both valuable partners and important risks.
Working Alone
While these last two may be troubling for Canadians, overall the report draws attention to a much bigger challenge. Cities around the world are only just beginning to prepare for the impacts of climate change. Most are conducting preliminary meetings with local government departments, doing on-line research, and forming commissions or task forces to support adaptation planning.
Going from there to creating strategies and integrating them into municipal operations will be a huge leap. Everything indicates that cities currently lack the political, financial, and institutional resources that they need to accomplish that critical work.
[I’ve covered work on urban adaptation quite a lot over the past few years. If you are interested in more, see these past articles.]
Continue readingRising oil prices will end urban sprawl … or not?
A popular assumption about rising oil prices is that people will have to drive a lot less and use public transit a lot more. This, in turn, will lead to greater housing density and fewer roads, i.e. less sprawl. And thus will be created the compact city—more efficient both financially
Continue readingopenalex: Experimental Cities
[Below is a post that I just wrote for sustainablecitiescanada.ca. I’ve been thinking about this idea that cities can function as laboratories for developing policies for a while now. It’s an interesting alternative or complement to more traditional top-down approaches to planning. But beyond novelty, I think if used well
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: SK Budget: Where’s the Inter-governmental Love?
A hallmark of Brad Wall’s premiership has been cosy relations with municipal governments and the two westernmost provincial governments. Since taking office, the Sask. Party has been throwing money at municipalities. It pledged not to sign the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement with Alberta and BC, but then did
Continue readingopenalex: Green Urban Innovation: Solarize Portland and the Power of Communities
I was in New York earlier this month to present at the Association of American Geographers big annual conference. As well as an excellent stroll along the High Line (thanks Gena!), I got to talk about Solarize Portland — one of my favourite examples of how people can reshape their
Continue readingopenalex: Farming in the City: Make environmental legislation flexible!
Cities are blanketed by a mesh of rules. Some of them are well known and clearly signaled (think traffic lights). Others only become visible when you start asking questions about your city. “Why aren’t there trees on my street?” “How come there aren’t any corner stores in my neighbourhood?” On
Continue readingopenalex: Chicago Kills Coal
Great news out of Chicago yesterday. After a two-and-a-half year campaign, a well networked citizens campaign has managed to secure the closure of two outdated and heavily polluting coal-fired power plants. The Fisk and Crawford power plants are located in residential neighbourhoods on Chicago’s Southwest Side. They are relics from
Continue readingopenalex: Rivers Forgotten – The Underground World Beneath City Streets
I was in Toronto last week and finally had a chance to get my hands on Rivers Forgotten, Jeremy Kai’s stunning book of underground photos (Koyama Press, 2011). Kai has spent years exploring the cavernous system of storm sewers that run below Toronto’s streets. Working in very challenging conditions, he
Continue readingopenalex: Community Scale Solar: Portland (OR) and Durban (South Africa)
[A piece I wrote is running in the most recent edition of UN-Habitat’s Urban World magazine. The article covers a gutsy and successful residential solar project in Portland (OR), and a similar project that I gave a hand with in Durban (South Africa). OK, I admit I’m a bit late
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Universal Student Transit Pass
I have an opinion piece out on the City of Ottawa’s universal, student transit pass–also known as “the U-Pass.” Points raised in the op-ed include the following: -U-Pass programs exist for roughly 30 universities and colleges across Canada. -For a U-Pass program to be introduced, students typically must vote in
Continue readingeaves.ca: Adapting KUALI financials for cities: Marin County is looking for Partners
Readers of my blog will be familiar Kuali – the coalition of universities that co-create a suite software core to their operations – as I’ve blogged about several times and argued that it is a powerful model for local governments interested in rethinking how they procure (or really, co-create) their
Continue readingopenalex: Republicans and Democrats Together on Climate Change…in Florida
It’s easy to forget that climate change hasn’t always been such a partisan issue. This is Mitt Romney, current Republican front-runner, in 2003: “I think the global warming debate is now pretty much over and people recognize the need associated with providing sources [of energy] which do not generate the
Continue readingopenalex: New Sustainable Cities Research Program – New Job, Exciting Prospects
Vancouver-based NGO Sustainable Cities International is an excellent outfit that runs a network of cities focused on green urbanism that spans the globe. The research that I’ve been able to do in South Africa, Canada, the States, Senegal (and other spots in between) has been in part thanks to their help.
Continue readingopenalex: Montreal’s Collective Push for Urban Agriculture
We are all still trying to figure out what a sustainable city is. Yes, we’ve got some good ideas. But to go beyond marginal changes and begin retrofitting, or building, cities in a way that truly responds to the challenges ahead requires ambitious changes. What type of neighbourhoods do we
Continue readingopenalex: Is Toronto Lost?
Has Toronto lost its way? That’s been the word on the street, and pretty much everywhere else, since Mayor Ford took office a little less than a year ago.But as colourful as his first 11 months have been, it’s a bit disingenuous to lay all the ci…
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