University-City Collaborations on Climate Action: Best Practices

The Biden Administration has advanced new climate initiatives that will greatly accelerate and reinvigorate the federal government’s engagement in urgently needed climate action, including the U.S.’s rejoining of the Paris Agreement. Although the previous administration withdrew from direct action, municipalities, states, and other subnational organizations continued their work on climate issues. “We are still in” became the organizing principle for this loose network of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. While the country still faces a series of significant crises and numerous policy demands, the opportunity to advance urban climate action, generally, and policy-making and research, more specifically, is abundantly evident. This is a unique moment to link rapidly-advancing federal actions with local initiatives that have grown significantly over the past several years. The webinar will focus on successful models of collaboration between cities and universities and is organized around three specific measures of success: the generation of actionable knowledge, infusion of climate considerations into higher education, and best practices for scaling climate action.

Welcome Address

Franco Montalto, Drexel University
Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
William Solecki, Hunter College, City University of New York

Keynote Address

John Robinson, University of Toronto

University-City Team Presentations

Robin Leichenko, Rutgers University & Adam Parris, City of New York (Northeast)
Jill Gambill, University of Georgia & Nick Deffley, City of Savannah (Southeast)
Beth Martin, Washington University (Midwest)
Nancy Grimm, Arizona State University (Southwest)
Heejun Chang, Portland State University (Northwest)

NGO Panel Discussants

Kristin Baja, Urban Sustainability Directors Network
Tim Carter, Second Nature
Marshall Curry, EPIC-N
James Richotte, Climate Mayors
Caitlin Simpson, NOAA
Kim Slater, University of Toronto

This Event Will Be Held Online via Zoom

• Zoom link will be provided upon RSVP
• Please download the Zoom app before joining the event
• Access Hunter College's "Zoom Webinars Best Practices" Guide