#24 Urban just transitions with Laura Tozer

 In this episode, we are speaking with Professor Laura Tozer. Laura is a social scientist who studies environmental politics and governance focusing on actions that address the climate crisis and also drive transitions to sustainable energy use. Her research explores mitigation and adaptation actions at a variety of jurisdictional scales: including international, federal, provincial, municipal and community, but at the moment, her research emphasizes the critical role of cities to accelerate decarbonization and achieve targets of net zero emissions. In our interview with Laura, we talked about the ways in which cities are innovating and leading the way in terms of policy, building retrofits and nature-based solutions. The old phrase, “think globally, act locally” certainly applies to Laura’s research program - on the one hand, cities are a huge source of GHG emissions, but, this actually means that significant progress towards net zero can be realized by focusing mitigation actions at the local level. Throughout our conversation, Laura emphasized the need for inclusive action in cities: policies and approaches that mitigate and adapt to climate change while also addressing energy poverty and environmental justice.  Laura's website: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/labs/climateandenergy/