Advancing Scientist–Practitioner Collaboration to Accelerate City Climate Action

The City of Boston, like many other large cities in the U.S., has invested millions of dollars in research and analysis over the last decade to develop detailed strategies for protecting the city from current and future climate impacts (sea level rise, extreme inland flooding, extreme heat) and achieving the City’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The results of this work highlight the need for radical changes in our urban form and urban metabolics to respond to the challenges of urban climate adaptation and mitigation. It has also made clear that the climate efforts of the next several decades to will require fundamentally new research, data and analysis capabilities, and a much closer working relationship between scientists and policy makers and practitioners.

John Cleveland is the Executive Director of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, a voluntary CEO network supporting the implementation of the City’s Climate Action Plan. The Commission has been at the forefront of the development of the city’s resilience and carbon reduction strategies and has raised much of funding for the research supporting those strategies. This session will explore the climate research needs of cities like Boston, how good research can drive changes in public policy and private markets, and how new structures for collaboration between scientists and practitioners can accelerate the kind of urban transformation demanded by the climate crisis.