Session

Since the adoption of the Rio Declaration and the Agenda 21, among the new challenges for an urban sustainable development, climate change has been increasingly recognized as a central one (IPCC, 2022), putting cities at the center stage for mitigation and adaptation efforts. At the same time, there is now global scientific consensus on the link between climate change impacts at the urban level and questions of environmental and climate justice: “Evidence from urban and rural settlements is unequivocal; climate impacts are felt disproportionately in urban communities, with the most economically and socially marginalised being most affected (high confidence)” (IPCC, 2022, p. 909). This consensus has led to calls for justice-oriented strategies and local policies that aim to address underlying political, social, and economic structures driving climate vulnerabilities and risks (Bulkeley et al., 2014).

In order to integrate questions of inequalities and justice, most international agreements on sustainable urban development and urban climate action (e.g. UN Habitat III, Agenda 21, UN 2030 Agenda) have been arguing for the integration of participative processes in the design of local policies. While participation is a fundamental aspect for policy-making processes, especially at the local level, how participative processes are designed can make a huge difference in the distribution of environmental risks and/or benefits. Beyond participation, questions of environmental and climate justice require consideration of distributive and, most notably, recognitional concerns (Scholsberg, 2007; Fraser, 2009). Through this Special Session we wish to investigate how a deeper understanding of environmental and climate justice, also through recognition of pre-existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, could help the design of more inclusive and equitable participatory processes for urban climate action. We welcome presentations on different topics related to participation in urban climate action, both theoretical and based on exemplary experiences.