Local communities have an important role to play in the net zero transition, developing new models of collective living to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Cities in particular represent 70% of the worlds emissions and are expected to grow to 68% of the global population by 2050. This discussion in the Oxford Net Zero Series, hosted by the Oxford Martin School, will explore what it means for local communities to set out on a pathway to net zero.

Kaya Axelsson, Radhika Khosla, Nicole Yazon and Steve Smith will discuss what is required to instigate community-wide shifts to low carbon lifestyles as well as the community stakeholder processes needed to drive action from the bottom up and ensure that some are not left behind in the net zero transition. At a high level, we will review local communities’ challenges in measuring and reporting emissions data and opportunities to standardise data aggregation systems to better understand the collective mitigation potential of urban net zero transitions.