Katherine Maxwell

A research initiative on how cities govern and finance climate action.

Overview

The Lab is a research home for work on how cities build the partnerships, networks and institutions needed to deliver climate action at scale. It draws on more than fifteen years of research and practice across urban governance, climate finance, and international city networks.

The Initiative brings together case study research, published scholarship, teaching, and advisory work under a single line of inquiry: not whether cities want to act on climate, but what makes the governance behind that action actually hold together. Initiative activities are carried out in collaboration with experts across the sector on each of the focus areas below.

Focus Areas

Areas of interest for research and collaboration.

• Urban Climate Governance Models – The structures, incentives and relationships that turn climate strategy into implementation.
• Climate Finance for Global South Cities – Unlocking investment and building the institutional capacity municipalities need to deliver climate action at the scale the crisis demands.
• Collaborative Networking for Climate Action – How cross-sector partnerships function in practice, and where they succeed or stall.

Activities

These focus areas are pursued through three strands of work described below.

I. Research: Articles & Books

• Forthcoming – Oxford University Press: Collaborative Governance within Global Cities.
• Book – Routledge, 2023: Governance Networks for Sustainable Cities: Connecting Theory and Practice in Europe
• Journal Series ; Climate and Development: Three article series on financing climate action in Global South cities.

II. Outreach: Podcast & Events

• Podcast: Host and producer, University of Oxford podcast series on COP29 outcomes for sustainable cities.
• Seminar at the University of Oxford: Chair, “Systems Change: How Can Cities Accelerate Progress Towards Net Zero?” with Dr Andy Kerr, Caroline Green, Dr Gireesh Shrimali and Maia Kutner.

III. Teaching & Supervision

• Yale University: Urban Sustainability, Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability.

Research Collaboration & Enquiries

For research partnerships, speaking engagements, or advisory work related to the Lab, get in touch.