Title:
Creating a Network for Equity in Energy Sustainability Transitions
Abstract:
Climate change impacts the quality of life and economic prosperity of societies across divides of race, gender, and class. Yet, it disproportionally affects the underserved, who are both least responsible and least able to cope with its consequences. Cities have a central role in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions, but their pervasively techno-centric transition approaches fail to consider the lived experiences of underserved communities. In this presentation, Professor Patricia will explain how a group of social scientists engaged with communities in Los Angeles to operationalize three equity principles in the transition to 100% clean energy by 2035. She will draw lessons on options and barriers to centring equity in technological innovations in energy and describe how these lessons inform the Justice Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions, a new research program at the University of Toronto.
Bio:
Professor Patricia Romero-Lankao is a Canadian Excellence in Research Chair and leader of its Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions (CERC NEST) at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She was a distinguished research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Paty examines crucial interactions among actors, climate and sustainability in many cities worldwide. She has developed innovative methods (e.g., clustering techniques) to examine how inequalities in income, education, and decision-making power are created (recognition justice) and relate to the distribution of benefits or harms (distributional justice). She has also developed tools such as listening sessions and fuzzy cognitive maps to examine the aspirations and needs of women, elders, the working class, people of colour, and other underrepresented groups to inform the understanding and management of these needs (e.g., procedural justice). Paty is widely cited in her field, with about 150 peer-reviewed publications. She was the co-leading author of Working Group II of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. She led the social and policy approaches to LA100 Equity Strategies.
Register:
Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/s/4640082022?omn=89054882289#success
Venue:
William G. Davis Computer Research Centre (DC), Room 1302