Cities and Climate Solutions | Energy

Webinar | 9:00 a.m. New York | 11:00 a.m. Santiago | 2:00 p.m. Braga | 3:00 p.m. Paris | 5:00 p.m. Nairobi

The Cities and Climate Solutions webinar series is co-organized by the City Diplomacy Lab and Columbia Global Centers | Paris.

This webinar is co-sponsored by Columbia Global Centers | Nairobi, Columbia Global Centers | Santiago, and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF).

This webinar brings together representatives from Santiago, Braga, and Nairobi to discuss the topics of energy poverty, urban renewable energy, building energy regulations, energy retrofit, and just transition. The discussion will be moderated by City Diplomacy Lab Director Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi.

Overview

In the face of the climate crisis, cities across the world are emerging as integral problem-solvers in the development of an effective, multi-layered response. The Cities and Climate Solutions series, launched in Spring 2023 with events on water and food, aims to bring together the representatives of cities that have implemented some of the most impactful and sustainable actions.

This second season of the webinar series kicked off in November 2023 and covers the topics of air, energy, and waste. Each webinar will see the participation of representatives of three municipalities and will be moderated by a representative from Columbia University. In order to encourage geographic representativeness, each webinar will host city representatives from different regions and countries.

This series celebrates the leadership of cities and provides inspiration for the thousands of cities and local governments around the world committed to shaping the global response to climate change.

Speakers

Braga

Hélder Costa’s mission is to support organizations, both public and private, in incorporating sustainability principles and values, ensuring that they conduct their activities responsibly, become more competitive, and promote innovation and sustainable development. To achieve this, he draws upon the knowledge acquired throughout his career, serving as a researcher in the development of sustainability assessment methodologies for university campuses and as an advisor to the Vice Presidency for Infrastructure and Sustainability at the University of Minho. The university was recognized in 2017 among the top 50 in the world in this field. Currently, he is a member of the Office to Support the Presidency at the Municipality of Braga, supporting the city’s sustainable development strategy. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Hydraulics and Environment. Recently, he completed a postgraduate program in Management Control and Strategic Execution at Porto Business School, an institution where he has been a speaker at events related to Sustainable Development. He was identified in the list of ‘100 Oportunidades,’ a project by Global Shapers Lisbon of the WEF.

Nairobi

Ibrahim Otieno is the county Chief Officer in charge of Environment, Climate Change, and Natural Resources. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of Environment in charge of waste management. He holds an MA in Environmental Planning and Management (UoN), BA (Geography & Environmental Studies, UoN), Post Grad Dip-Green & Circular Economy (DTU, Denmark) and Water Sector Governance & Operations (CHU, Denmark).

Santiago

Mauricio Fabry is a veterinary doctor from the University of Concepción with studies at the University of California and Adolfo Ibáñez University. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Doctorate program in Biodiversity Management and Conservation at the Universidad Santo Tomás de Chile. Mauricio worked for 18 years at the Santiago Metropolitan Park, of which he was its director for 7 years. He led the Ecoparque project at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. He is currently Head of the Department of Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Action in the Metropolitan Regional Government of Santiago.

Moderator

Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi is the founding director of the City Diplomacy Lab. He is a lecturer in City Diplomacy at Columbia Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE | Paris), Sciences Po – PSIA, and École Polytechnique. He regularly advises international organizations, national governments, city networks, and municipalities on how to fully unfold the added value of city diplomacy. Author of City Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), he holds a dual PhD in Political Theory from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS, Rome).


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The views and opinions expressed by speakers and guests do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of City Diplomacy Lab and Columbia Global Centers | Paris.