Perspectives from worldwide experts on how major cities across the globe are responding to the major environmental threats of our time, including global climate change
Over half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and this share is expected to increase in the coming decades. With growing urbanization, cities and their residents face substantial environmental challenges such as higher temperatures, droughts, wildfires, and increased flooding. In response to these pressing challenges, some cities have begun to develop local environmental regulations that supplement national and environmental laws. In so doing, cities have stepped into a role that has been historically dominated by higher levels of government.
Global Sustainable Cities takes stock of the policies that have been implemented by cities around the world in recent years in several key areas: water, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate adaptation. It examines the advantages—and potential drawbacks—of allowing cities to assume a significant role in environmental regulation, given the legal and political constraints in which cities operate.
The contributors present a series of case studies of the actions that seven leading cities—Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Berlin, Delhi, London, New York, and Shanghai—are taking to improve their environments and adapt to climate change. The first volume of its kind, Global Sustainable Cities is a critical comparative assessment of the actions that major cities in the global North and South are taking to advance sustainability.
Perspectives from worldwide experts on how major cities across the globe are responding to the major environmental threats of our time, including global climate change
Over half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and this share is expected to increase in the coming decades. With growing urbanization, cities and their residents face substantial environmental challenges such as higher temperatures, droughts, wildfires, and increased flooding. In response to these pressing challenges, some cities have begun to develop local environmental regulations that supplement national and environmental laws. In so doing, cities have stepped into a role that has been historically dominated by higher levels of government.
Global Sustainable Cities takes stock of the policies that have been implemented by cities around the world in recent years in several key areas: water, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate adaptation. It examines the advantages—and potential drawbacks—of allowing cities to assume a significant role in environmental regulation, given the legal and political constraints in which cities operate.
The contributors present a series of case studies of the actions that seven leading cities—Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Berlin, Delhi, London, New York, and Shanghai—are taking to improve their environments and adapt to climate change. The first volume of its kind, Global Sustainable Cities is a critical comparative assessment of the actions that major cities in the global North and South are taking to advance sustainability.
Danielle Spiegel-Feld (Editor)
Danielle Spiegel-Feld is Executive Director of the Guarini
Center on Environmental, Energy & Land Use Law at NYU School of
Law.
Katrina Miriam Wyman (Editor)
Katrina Miriam Wyman is the Sarah Herring Sorin Professor of
Law in the School of Law at New York University.
John J. Coughlin (Editor)
John J. Coughlin is Global Distinguished Professor of
Religious Studies and Law and NYU, Abu Dhabi and Affiliated Faculty
at NYU Law School and author of Canon Law: A Comparative Study With
Anglo-American Legal Theory and Law, Person and Community,
Theological, Philosophical, and Comparative Perspectives on Canon
Law.
"An impressive volume whose international focus allows for
cutting-edge comparative assessment in regards to the role of
cities in addressing today’s environmental challenges. Global
Sustainable Cities will contribute significantly to the literature
on the role of major cities as they work to advance sustainability
through innovative transportation, infrastructure, and energy
initiatives."
*Vanessa Casado Pérez, Texas A&M University*
"Global Sustainable Cities features a phenomenal lineup of
contributors whose topics, narrative arc, and implications create a
readable, highly compelling volume. Taken altogether, the revealing
case studies highlighted in these essays convincingly make the case
for the centrality of cities to environmental law."
*Nestor Davidson, Faculty Director, Urban Law Center, Fordham
University*
"An important volume that fills a gap in the literature on cities
and climate change. While many have argued that cities are and
should be significant actors in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and averting the worst impacts of climate disasters, this book
illustrates how different kinds of cities are doing so. The book is
also important for its comparative examination of cities'
environmental and climate actions across geographic regions and
political systems. Any future assessment of cities' roles in
maintaining environmental quality and addressing climate change
should begin with this impressive volume."
*Sheila R. Foster, Georgetown University, author of Co-Cities:
Innovative Transitions toward Just and Self-Sustaining
Communities*
"This important, timely and interesting book explores the current
landscape of environmental leadership - examining both their
strengths and weaknesses. It provides ample support for the
important idea that it is in cities that we can act rapidly to
address climate change and its consequences - because we must."
*David Miller, former Mayor of Toronto and author of Solved: How
the Great Cities of the World Are Fixing the Climate Crisis*
"This broad and highly readable comparative collection provides a
valuable tool for scholars working with eager students and
environmental activists who raise crucial urban ecological issues
without always understanding the complex, interlocking legal and
governance issues involved in the meaningful implementation of
change... its systematic analysis should be an engaging foundation
for understanding what has been accomplished, what can be done in
the future, and how action can be effectively channeled toward
these vital urban issues."
*CHOICE*
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