City preparedness for the climate crisis. A multidisciplinary approach

Environmental challenges such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, desertification or pollution are all problems that different actors have tried to tackle for decades. These are all multifaceted, complex and polyhedral challenges that make them very difficult to address. International organizations and states have discussed the environment at least since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, where attention was directed to environmental concerns. In the conference’s declaration, itwas already pointed out that the enhancement of the environment would ‘demand the acceptance of responsibility by citizens and communities and by enterprises and institutions at every level, and that local and national governments will bear the greatest burden for large-scale environmental policy and actionwithin their jurisdictions’ (United Nations, 1973, p. 3). Coming from the discipline of International Relations, theway global challenges are solved by states and transnational organizations has always interestedme, and how local actors such as cities can contribute to environmental global governance has been themain focus of my research in the last years. That is why City Preparedness for the Climate Crisis, edited by Francisco JavierCarrillo andCathy Garner, has caught my attention. This book is composed of 28 chapters organized in seven sections that touch upon the vulnerability of cities, the use of indicators to monitor local action, and how some initiatives have proved effective in mitigating the effects of climate change at the city level. Overall, the book provides different answers from diverse perspectives and authors’ backgrounds that will be enriching for a large group of readers interested in the role of cities in global governance. The fact that chapters get to the point and are quite short is also good in the era of immediateness and lack of time. As highlighted by Anja Wejs and Lelani M. Mannetti in their respective chapters, having climate change planning is not enough, since adaptation to climate change has to be integrated in most sectors of local governments to be effective (p. 16). This is an important idea because action does not automatically follow the adoption of a plan to face climate change at the local level. And to complicate this further, climate change is surrounded by a high level of uncertainty that complicates the identification of the best actions to address it (p. 43). As the book makes clear throughout, it is time to move from rhetoric to the real implementation of policies at the local level. Several chapters, but specially chapter 6, underline that success in climate action is linked to engagement and collaboration between diverse stakeholders, from civil society to companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental institutions. Meanwhile, Danuta Kaźmierczak reminds us of the importance of education and the awareness of citizens, so that they have a set of competences to address climate change with creativity and with a community (versus individual) perspective. This idea is reinforced in chapter 11, where the authors underline the importance of having a renewed humanity committed to principles of equity and the common good if any transformation is to be achieved (p. 149). Interestingly, Omar Zermeño suggests in his chapter that what may be missing is not necessarily information, but a strong opposition in values (p. 155), meaning that part of the population may not want to change their lifestyles to the benefit of humanity. Indeed, most authors in this book agree on the need to change values, behaviours and the way the economy works. This makes me wonder if citizens – especially in the most developed countries – are ready to change our habits as consumers, and howmuchwe arewilling to sacrifice at the individual level for the sake of the global environment. Thomas J. Burns proposes a combination of the strengths of bottom-up and top-down organizational models to facilitate social and cultural changes. This change in values in the society is closely linked to a change in the current economy: a transition to an economy of the commons that is more equitable and socially based. Now, how can that be achieved? As Carrillo suggests, the contents and visions that economic schools give – where the self-perpetuation of a neoclassical belief system is deeply anchored – can be a good start (p. 178). Chapter 27, by Raphaële Bidault-Waddington, reinforces this idea with some interesting models of learning initiatives launched by NGOs and platforms that promotemore sustainable thinking. As an example of the above, several chapters describe how sharing and collaboration in the city can be a response to climate change. From services (cars, bikes) to places (for sleeping and leisure activities), sharing can help achieve economic degrowth in consumption and productions, and thus reduce part or the negative aspects that come with them (pp. 201, 202), such as the carbon emissions or the deterioration of biodiversity. Other chapters explain novel experiences on communal practices, such as the beautiful Cottonwood gardens in Vancouver that turned a dusty wasteland into an oasis of biodiversity (p. 269); or the use by the Green Africa Youth Organization of Ghana of a circular economy approach to develop zero waste community models (p. 337). BOOK REVIEWS 1235