Book of the week

Joan Fitzgerald - Greenovation - Urban Leadership on Climate Change

Photo: MESZL

“Cities cover about 3 percent of the land on Earth, yet they produce about 72 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions.” (excerption from the book)

According to more and more writings and speeches the importance of the role of municipalities and towns in the struggle against climate change is cardinal. In 2019, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, the chief executive officer of UN-HABITAT  said that towns and cities are the main sources (causes) of climate change, however, they may have a key role in solution, too (link to the interview is available at the bottom, after the text).  It is not the statement concerning the facts that means novelty but publicity the facts received and related changes and provisions that are palpable, perceivable world-wide.

The author of the Book of the week tried to observe and study towns' roles in climate change  in details in his book  Greenovation - Urban Leadership on Climate Change (2020); besides, the author would like to show the intention of "restitution".   Joan Fitzgerald (Urban and Public Policy, Northeastern University) outlines the most important steps including the first one:

“Many cities have set aggressive climate goals, but what many cities that do this lack is a strategy and an accountability showing along the way how they’re going to achieve that and what they’ve done to achieve it. So that’s the first step.” --- more information in the lecture (and in the book)!

(After the library is reopened, the volumes of the book reviews uploaded on Mondays will be available in Free Access Area, at the table marked "New Foreign Books on Sociology".  Relevant regulations can be seen on library website:  http://fszek.hu/)

Sources and more readings:

Conversation with the author: https://knowlton.osu.edu/.../baumer-conversations-joan...

Interview with Maimunah Mohd Sharif : https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1046662