From the What to the How of Keeping 1.5°C Alive: Methodological Innovations

Abstract

Much attention is rightly being devoted to what cities need to do and the targets they need to meet in order to fulfill the 1.5°C agenda. The field of technical innovation is also vibrant, with bold marketing of new solutions a daily occurrence. Adopting them uncritically or in inappropriate contexts can often incur great expense and create technological lock-ins and path dependencies without sufficient positive impacts. By contrast, comparatively little innovation is occurring in methods to understand how changes and innovations might be received by different groups of urban residents or, indeed, what their often conflicting perceptions and priorities are in relation to individual and collective behavioural changes in adapting to climate change and promoting urban sustainability and resilience. This intervention explains some of the innovative methods available that have recently been tried and tested in diverse urban contexts. These involve bringing different stakeholders together to build shared understandings of local problems and to explore and co-produce appropriate strategies and solutions. These constitute deep and extended forms of participation that recognize the value of different forms of knowledge and seek to address unequal power relations rather than assuming that experts know best. On the basis of extensive comparative research, guidelines of good practice and how to adapt methods to local contexts have been developed. This article summarizes these guidelines and signposts to the full manual available on open access.