The Biden Administration has advanced new climate initiatives that will greatly accelerate and reinvigorate the federal government’s engagement in urgently needed climate action, including the U.S.’s rejoining of the Paris Agreement.

Although the previous administration withdrew from direct action, municipalities, states, and other subnational organizations continued their work on climate issues. “We are still in” became the organizing principle for this loose network of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. While the country still faces a series of significant crises and numerous policy demands, the opportunity to advance urban climate action, generally, and policy-making and
research, more specifically, is abundantly evident. This is a unique moment to link rapidly-advancing federal actions with local initiatives that have grown significantly over the past several years.

The webinar will focus on successful models of collaboration between cities and universities and is organized around three specific measures of success: the generation of actionable knowledge, infusion of climate considerations into higher education, and best practices for scaling climate action.

This webinar will feature several examples of city-university joint collaborations including a presentation by WashU’s Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability, Phil Valko and City of St. Louis Government Services Analyst, Rajiv Ravulapati. After the presentations, the Midwest breakout session will be moderated by Beth Martin, Teaching Professor of Environmental Studies and Associate Director of Washington University Climate Change Program.

This event was organized by The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, Drexel University College of Engineering, Second Nature, and Urban Climate Change Research Network.