IN-PERSON Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

Climate change concerns have placed cities central to achieving net zero. Achieving net zero is challenging due to the complex nature of reducing carbon emissions. The real-world challenges in relation to water, food, health, and energy need to evolve, necessitating a deeper understanding of how to address this. Systems thinking applications have been consisdered including in energy transition and climate change, which have begun to gain traction, but require more city and urban-level specific consideration. This paper presents how system thinking approach enable identification and selection of appropriate resilience measures in energy transition in some sampled cities, drawing from system thinking fundamental principles of holism, feedback loops and dynamics, leverage points, boundaries and perspective, adaptability and learning supported by the energy transition literature. It uses publicly available information and adopts a comparative case study approach. The paper suggest system thinking is useful to understand the technological, policy, environmental and economic dynamics within the regulatory, cultural, and socio-economic context of cities. It provides recommendations for how systems thinking provides insights and support for wicked problems for city-level analysis and policy directions. It is specifically useful for academic learners, practitioners, planners and policy makers aiming to accelerate transitions to achieve net zero.