Across the United States, cities are acting as climate first responders - carrying climate action forward even as national politics grow more hostile. From clean energy and buildings to transport, land use and resilience to extreme weather events, mayors are proving that climate leadership does not depend on federal permission. It grows from proximity: to people, to impacts, and to the places leaders are entrusted to protect. Cities are stepping in to safeguard neighbourhoods, rivers, urban ecosystems and public health, often while the federal government undermines climate policy or attacks local authority.

Featured guests:

Keith Wilson, Mayor of Portland, Oregon, USA

Kirk Watson, Mayor of Austin, Texas, USA

Juliet Oluoch, Research fellow at Ustawi Analytica and youth climate activist from Nairobi, Kenya

Links:

Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis by David Miller

The Fate of the Inflation Reduction Act in the Second Era of Trump - Cities 1.5

Trump signs order to withdraw US from Paris climate agreement for second time - The Guardian

‘Poet, writer, wife, mom’: who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent? - The Guardian

Mayor Keith Wilson Announces Portland Has Reached more than 1,500 Emergency Overnight Beds, Delivered at Unprecedented Speed - Portland.gov

Costumed protesters in Portland defy description of the city as a 'war zone' - NBC News

Austin Climate Equity Plan

$3,000 grants offered to groups addressing climate change and food access challenges - Austin Monitor

More links for this episode available at jccpe.utpjournals.press and c40.org.

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website at https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Listen to the Cities 1.5 five-part miniseries “Going Steady with Herman Daly: How to Unbreak the Economy (and the Planet)" here: https://lnk.to/HDMiniSeries

Cities 1.5 is produced by the University of Toronto Press and the C40 Centre, and is supported by C40 Cities. Sign up to the Centre newsletter: https://thecentre.substack.com/

Writing and executive production by Peggy Whitfield.

Narrative and communications support by Chiara Morfeo.

Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/

Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

Music by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/