An Urban Political Ecology of Climate Change Governance

As more cities seek to address environmental and climate change woes, the issuance of municipal green bonds to finance such initiatives is growing. But how do issuers and investors conceptualise and enact green bonds in relation to building a more sustainable society? What socionatures are produced with these bonds, and for whom? Based on fieldwork in Gothenburg, the first municipality in the world to issue green bonds, we bring together the literature on green finance, post-politics and affect through an urban political ecology lens to unpack the processes, practices and discourses underlying green bonds. We argue that green bonds ultimately serve as a new path to attract and circulate capital within the consensual, non-antagonistic sustainable order, where claims of doing good and building a good conscience are affective mechanisms that play an important, yet underexplored, role. In the conclusion, we reflect on the broader role of green finance and the possibility of harnessing affect and the political towards building more transformative and emancipatory urban socio-environments.

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Applying the Urban Political Ecology (UPE) Framework to Re-Visit Disaster and Climate Change Vulnerability-Risk Assessments

Journal of Regional and City Planning ◽

10.5614/jpwk.2019.30.3.4 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 224

Author(s):

M. Bobby Rahman ◽

Isye Susana Nurhasanah ◽

Erwin Nugraha ◽

Tetty Harahap

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Political Ecology ◽

Risk Assessments ◽

Urban Political Ecology ◽

Climate Change Vulnerability

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Urban political ecologies of housing and climate change: The ‘Coolest Block’ Contest in Philadelphia

Urban Studies ◽

10.1177/0042098015617907 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 54 (5) ◽

pp. 1126-1141 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Gareth A S Edwards ◽

Harriet Bulkeley

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Political Ecology ◽

Urban Studies ◽

Social Economic ◽

Urban Political Ecology ◽

Address Climate Change ◽

Environmental Objectives ◽

Emergent Literature ◽

Political Ecologies ◽

The City

Urban authorities and a range of private and civil society actors have come to view housing as a key arena in which to address climate change whilst also pursuing wider social, economic and environmental objectives. Housing has been a critical area for urban studies, but often considered in sectoral terms and work on urban responses to climate change has followed this positioning. By contrast, an Urban Political Ecology (UPE) perspective would position housing in more integrated terms as part of the metabolism of the city. Yet so far there has been relatively little written in UPE about either housing or climate change. This paper therefore seeks to bring UPE into dialogue with the emergent literature focused on governing climate change through housing. It does so through a detailed study of the ‘Retrofit Philly “Coolest Block” Contest’. We argue that this contest highlights the ways climate change is changing the way housing is embedded in the circulations of the city, pointing to changes in who is governing housing, how housing is being governed and who is able to access the benefits of (climate change-branded) action on housing.

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