Decarbonization for Cities
Included in subscription
Description
In recent years, the climate crisis has placed decarbonization at the top of the urban agenda. While cities across the world have created climate action plans and pledged ambitious emission reductions, recent research has revealed that many jurisdictions are struggling to develop implementation strategies to meet those targets. This session will identify some of the common gaps in current city approaches and highlight innovative work happening at the local level that may provide broader guidance to community decarbonization strategies across the country. Participants will gain an understanding of the current context for this work and promising practices that may inform they own work. Hosted by Communities by Design (CxD).
Course expires 12/17/2025
Learning Objectives
Describe the economic, environmental, and equity benefits to decarbonizing cities.
Identify how strategies can be adapted to different cities, especially accounting for different climate zones and political environments.
Understand current gaps in climate planning and decarbonization strategies and key barriers that cities must overcome
Gain insight into promising policies and practices that they might leverage as models for their own community work.
This session was recorded live on February 22, 2023.
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Throughout his career, Jamal has had the privilege to work on various topics that have had consequential and positive effects on vulnerable populations. His work as a researcher and consultant has focused on the evaluation of systemic inequities within our economic system as well as the development of decarbonization roadmaps. Jamal as leaned on data-driven and geospatial research techniques to gain a more complete understanding of research questions and to inform actionable insights.
Jamal is serving as the Senior Officer - Analytics and Impact at the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center, responsible for identifying opportunities for sectoral and cross-sector innovation and improved economic, environmental and social impact, especially for vulnerable and underserved populations. He has recently embarked on a PhD, with his research focusing on the areas of energy poverty, residential building weatherization, and decarbonization in the built environment.
Previously, Jamal has worked with fortune 100 companies on their decarbonization journey. This work focused on Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG accounting and reduction levers, including: Net-Zero Science Based Targets; mobility TCO and emission optimization; carbon capture, storage and utilization market analysis; and carbon offset strategy.
Other past experiences include producing quantitative research and strategic briefings at Hanover Research, overseeing research and policy recommendations for the San Diego Workforce Partnership, and leading Veridian Analytics. Jamal has a Master's degree in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics from the University of California, San Diego.
Jamal strongly believes that it is incumbent on all of humanity to find viable solutions to this climate crisis. His enthusiasm towards innovative, market-based solutions to combatting climate change is only surpassed by his commitment to an equitable green transition.
Dr. Luis Aguirre-Torres is currently leading work at Rewiring America, a leading electrification nonprofit focused on electrifying everything in our communities. He is also co-chair of the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment, Society and Economy. He was formerly the Director of Sustainability for the City of Ithaca, N.Y., where he established and led the city’s decarbonization and climate justice strategies. Prior to joining the City of Ithaca, he was the President and CEO of GreenMomentum, a think tank organization focused on climate change and renewable energy in Latin America. He is the former chairman of the Latin American and Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy and former energy chair of the Mexico-US Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council. He holds a first degree in computer engineering from Mexico’s National University, a master’s in computer science and a Ph.D. in electronic and electrical engineering from University College London.