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In
Greenovation, noted urban policy scholar Joan Fitzgerald explains why efforts to reduce climate change have to start in cities and calls for a policy of "greenovation." "Greenovation" policies use the city as a test bed for adopting and perfecting green technologies for more energy-efficient buildings, transportation, and other fundamental infrastructures of contemporary life.
List of contents
- Chapter 1: Introduction: Cities on the Front Lines.
- Chapter 2: Building the Energy Efficient City
- Chapter 3: Beyond the Building: District Heating and Cooling
- Chapter 4: Completely Renewable Cities
- Chapter 5: Electrifying Transportation
- Chapter 6: Deprioritizing Cars
- Chapter 7: Eco-Districts: Integration and Experimentation
- Chapter 8: Cities and the Green Economy
- Chapter 9: Climate Just Cities
- Chapter 10: Connecting the Dots
About the author
Joan Fitzgerald is Professor of Urban and Public Policy at Northeastern University. She focuses on urban climate action policy, governance, and finance. She is co-authoring her next book on cities and the struggle for climate justice.
Summary
Collectively, cities take up a relatively tiny amount of land on the earth, yet they emit 72 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Clearly, cities need to be at the center of any broad effort to reduce climate change.
In Greenovation, the eminent urban policy scholar Joan Fitzgerald argues that too many cities are only implementing random acts of greenness that will do little to address the climate crisis. She instead calls for "greenovation"--using the city as a test bed for adopting and perfecting green technologies for more energy--efficient buildings, transportation, and infrastructure more broadly. Fitzgerald contends that while many city mayors cite income inequality as a pressing problem, few cities are connecting climate action and social justice-another aspect of greenovation. Focusing on the biggest producers of greenhouse gases in cities, buildings, energy and transportation, Fitzgerald examines how greenovating cities are reducing emissions overall and lays out an agenda for fostering and implementing urban innovations that can help reverse the path toward irrevocable climate damage. Drawing on interviews with practitioners in more than 20 North American and European cities, she identifies the strategies and policies they are employing and how support from state, provincial and national governments has supported or thwarted their efforts.
A uniquely urban-focused appraisal of the economic, political, and social debates that underpin the drive to "go green," Greenovation helps us understand what is arguably the toughest policy problem of our era: the increasing impact of anthropocentric climate change on modern social life.
Additional text
Greenovation builds upon Fitzgerald's earlier book, Emerald Cities, offering a detailed analysis of green technology to mitigate and perhaps combat rising climate change....Two notable features stand out: her incorporation of racial justice considerations and her targeting of the negative role of China in undercutting North American and European greenovation programs....This is a book that every community activist and city planner concerned to move climate action policies forward should not only have...but should be heavily underlined to highlight its key insights, best practices, and major policy lessons.
