Mainstreaming Climate Change in Urban Development: Lessons from Cape Town 

22 Oct 2019
22 Oct 2019

Edited by Dianne Scott, Helen Davies and Mark New (ACDI director), and launched in October 2019, this new book titled "Mainstreaming Climate Change in Urban Development: Lessons from Cape Town"was produced as part of the ongoing collaboration between UCT and the City of Cape Town.

The authors examine initiatives at the local government level, across a range of departments, from environmental resource management to housing, stormwater management, water management, energy management and spatial planning. The book also records the progress made and challenges faced in mainstreaming climate change into urban policies, processes, programmes and practices, a problem facing most urban areas around the world. 

The chapters of the book were co-written by practitioners from the City of Cape Town and academic researchers from a range of disciplines, including economists, engineers, ecologists, geographers and urban planners. This transdisciplinary co-production process, where practitioner experience is coupled with an academic and research perspective, has produced an ‘insider’ view of urban development and climate change governance through the lens of theory. The result provides new practice-based knowledge for policy-making in the transition towards more sustainable cities in the face of climate change, particularly those in the global South.