Cities, Climate Change and Urban Heat Island Mitigation: Localising Global Environmental Science

Abstract

This paper explores how city planners engaged with global climate scientists to devise contextually relevant strategies to address the urban heat island effect—a potentially dangerous heat event expected to increase along with global warming. Drawing original data from the New York City Regional Heat Island Initiative, a collaborative effort between scientists and urban planners, the paper highlights how global climate science is `localised' as researchers and policy-makers struggle to make technically legitimate and politically accountable decisions. The paper argues that the localisation of global science often involves a process of co-production, where technical issues are not divorced from their social setting and a diverse set of stakeholders engage in analytical reviews and the crafting of policy solutions. The paper argues that the co-production framework can contribute to more scientifically legitimate and publicly accountable decision-making related to urban climate change.