Publication: “Cities as transformative agents for global sustainability” in Science Expert Voices

ARC Laureate Professor Xuemei Bai’s sixth and final Science Expert Voices article was published on July 11th, where she argues for a reconceptualisation of cities as transformative agents for climate safe future and global sustainability. Titled “Cities as transformative agents for global sustainability”, the key concepts in the paper are directly related to the focus of the ARC Laureate Fellowship project which shares the same title. Our in-house research team at the ANU and broader collaborative network of researchers are working hard to advance some key issues.

The article argues that there are numerous conceptual and empirical steps necessary to reconceptualise cities as agents, shifting away from the prevailing framing of cities as culprit and/or victim of climate change.

Three key characteristics of a city as a transformative agent are presented:

i) Cities can radically alter their own future trajectories toward a desirable future, accelerating progress towards them;

ii) They can actively influence and support the transformation of other cities;

iii) They can construct new kinds of networked systems defined by collective, cooperative actions and new patterns of interaction. Building networked resilience is one of such examples.

Read the article here.

This was the final piece in a series Professor Bai was invited to contribute by Science over the last two years. The previous five Expert Voices are:

1. Make the upcoming IPCC Cities Special Report count

2. Build networked resilience across cities

3. Post-2030 global goals need explicit targets for cities and businesses.

4. A case for altruistic cities

5. China’s urbanization at a turning point—challenges and opportunities