REP Research Seminar - Presenting in person - Dr Philip O'Brien, University of Glasgow. Title: An investigation of the institutionalisation of climate transition policies in second tier UK cities as part of the Urban Retrofit project

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Abstract: The built environment contributes 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions, excluding transport (WGBC, 2019). This necessarily places planning at the centre of any credible net-zero policy agenda. Yet a persistent gap exists between climate policy ambition and delivery.

There are a wide range of concepts employed in climate policy, including net zero, just transition, climate resilience, green growth, and the circular economy. Some or all may be present in the framing of policies used by local governments to address climate change but their institutionalisation into the day-to-day practices of planning, housing, transport, and economic development is highly contingent, being channelled through politics and agency.

We use Cultural Political Economy to frame an analysis of how climate transition enters into urban policy, based on its premise that complex concepts must be simplified in order to be understood and acted upon in material ways. In our case, the complex concept of climate change and its impact on cities is simplified into a discourse of urban climate transition, and its corresponding material manifestation comes through the policies and practices of urban governments. We address the climate transition as a discourse by articulating the presentation of constituting concepts at the urban scale and within the urban policy arena. We investigate the institutionalisation of the climate transition into policy and practices by exploring how this process is constrained or enabled by governance structure, policy goals, scalar orientation, functional alignment, and engagement with non-state actors.

This talk presents work in progress undertaken as part of the Urban Retrofit project, which investigates the use of place-based adaptations to the urban environment to render it fit for more sustainable living patterns. I will first present the broader Urban Retrofit project, establishing its premise, antecedents and framing. Following this I will set out the approach taken in the analysis of how the case study city partners in this project are integrating climate transition policies into their urban governance.

Bio: Dr. Phil O’Brien is Senior Lecturer in Real Estate and Housing in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. His research interests are mainly focused empirically on the juncture of planning and property development and conceptually on institutionalist approaches to interpreting this. Phil has published on comparative planning systems research as well as on the role of spatial imaginaries in regional formation.