This talk is organised by the Oxford Water Network
The urgency of limiting global warming to under 2˚C has been emphasized by the recent rulebook at COP24 in Katowice. This comes after the release of the IPCC special report on impacts of 1.5 ˚C which identifies pathways for accelerated action to limit global warming and address resource competition through changes in multiple areas including: energy, water, land use and ecosystems, urban and infrastructure, and industry. Cities of the global south are growing fast but much of the urban landscape is yet to be built especially in Africa. Urbanising Africa has shown signals of practical solutions to low emissions, resource competition and sustainability and thus can provide lead in transitions to address climate change, disaster risk and resource competition while addressing development deficits. This talk will explore opportunities for leapfrogging urban development for inclusive and resilient African cities.
About the speaker
Shuaib Lwasa has over 15 years of experience in university teaching and research working on interdisciplinary projects. His recent work has been in the fields of climate change mitigation, adaptation of cities to climate change, urban environmental management, spatial planning, and disaster risk reduction, as well as urban sustainability with links to livelihood systems and vulnerability to climate change.
He has published on cities and adaptation to climate change, health impacts of climate change, land and property rights, land use and landscape ecology, resource efficiency, and spatial planning for sustainability. Shuaib coordinates the Habitat University (UNI) climate change and disaster Hub at the department of Geography. He also serves on the Science Steering committee member of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) and he is an IPCC Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report WG III Chapter on Urban Systems.
He holds an AXA research chair of urban sustainability and is at the forefront of advances in urban science and sustainable urbanisation, working in Kampala and throughout Uganda. He is part of Nature Sustainability’s international expert panel on Urban Science, a coordinating lead author for the IPCC 6th Assessment and director of Makerere University’s Urban Action Lab. In July 2018, Prof Lwasa and three other colleagues published an influential paper in Nature Sustainability on sustainable urbanisation in the global south. It provides a compelling agenda, and intersects with much work across the University.