Future Cities Go Glocal: Call for Applications 2024/2025
“Future Cities Go Glocal”, a new initiative by the Aspen Institute Germany, acknowledges cities as both global and local actors. The project seeks to enhance cities’ ability to address critical issues like climate change, energy security, migration, social justice, and inadequate infrastructure. The aim is to promote exchange between city stakeholders from Berlin, New Delhi, Nairobi, and Mexico City in order to share best practices, create new networks, and develop policy recommendations for sustainable and inclusive urban development in the face of diverse challenges. The project aims to strengthen the role of cities as global actors in shaping the transition to a just and sustainable society and realizing the vision of fair and resilient cities while fostering a shared understanding of the future of urban environments.
2024/2025 Focus: Climate Change, Energy Security, and Sustainability
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis until September 30, 2024, from city stakeholders living or working in Berlin, Nairobi, Mexico City, and New Delhi to apply to be a part of the first cohort in 2024/2025. Five urban decision-makers from each city in politics, business, civil society, and other fields relevant to urban life will collaborate across borders digitally and in-person in Berlin to bring their experience and expertise to tackle the issues of climate change, energy security, and sustainability.
The issues of climate change, energy security, and sustainability are some of the biggest challenges facing politics and society today and in the future. Climate change and environmental degradation have serious socio-economic consequences. They affect global food security, destroy jobs, and damage human health and well-being. The sustainable production and secure supply of energy, such as wind and solar energy, combined with conventional energy generation, the expansion of the electricity grid, the reduction of electricity consumption and CO2 emissions, and the modernization of buildings and transport systems are among the major tasks of our time.
More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities. By 2050 it could be more than two thirds. Cities consume around 80 percent of the world’s energy and resources. They therefore make a significant contribution to climate change and global environmental problems. At the same time, they are particularly affected by the consequences of climate change and environmental degradation. This makes innovative approaches that take all three components of sustainability into account all the more important: ecological, social and economic sustainability. Important components include lower-emission transportation systems, energy-efficient buildings, and integrated waste and recycling management, as well as systems for generating and using renewable energy in cities.
An important cross-cutting topic will be digitalization, where AI offers significant potential to combat the climate crisis by optimizing resource use, identifying early environmental measures, and uncovering CO2 savings. However, this comes with high electricity and resource demands, for example in data centers. Rapid advances in machine learning and data processing introduce both challenges and solutions to pressing environmental and climate issues.
Cities are affected differently by climate change and the energy crisis and must set their own priorities accordingly. Nonetheless, the exchange of strategies and instruments is valuable both in terms of the energy mix and adaptation to climate change, especially as these are particularly sensitive issues in the international context. As part of this cohort, the following questions will be explored:
- What measures must cities take to protect themselves against the negative effects of climate change such as increasingly severe weather phenomena (e.g. heat, storms, flooding, droughts) or to adapt to new circumstances?
- How must the city “of tomorrow” be designed to ensure climate resilience and energy supply?
- How can we cushion higher social costs for electricity generation?
- How can the economic potential of renewable energies in cities be used as effectively as possible?
Program Outline and Benefits of Participation
To explore these questions, the project will give participants the opportunity to engage with international peers and other leaders in the field and shape the intercontinental dialogue on future cities during in-person and virtual programming, to include:
- interactive virtual meetings between November 2024 and May 2025 (approximately 9 meetings, 1-2 hours per meeting);
- one 3.5-day in-person meeting (not including travel time) in Berlin, Germany in March 2025;
- collaboration on a joint publication of recommendations to be released in May 2025; and
- a virtual closing event in May/June 2025.
During the program, participants will learn more about urban practices and policies in each other’s cities, conduct site visits to see best practices and innovative solutions on the ground, and explore opportunities for intercontinental collaboration. Participants are expected to actively and consistently contribute to the development of concrete policy recommendations, which will be published and presented in a final closing event. Costs for participation (travel, accommodation, meals) will be covered by the project.
Eligibility
Applicants for this exchange program must:
- be city stakeholders in business, politics, city administration or planning, culture, arts, sports, media, architecture, academia, or other fields relevant to urban life;
- live or work in New Delhi, Nairobi, Berlin, or Mexico City;
- be able to participate in the development and publication of recommendations in the form of a report and a final event;
- have expertise on city-related topics, climate change, energy security, sustainability and/or digitalization;
- have sufficient knowledge of English; and
- be interested in international exchange.
Application Process
To apply, please complete the application found here by the application deadline of September 30, 2024: https://forms.office.com/e/BYC5QAbYnf.
If you have any questions, you can contact Tobias Röttger at roettger@aspeninstitute.de
Disclaimer: Program components and schedule are subject to change due to changes in travel restrictions.
The project is funded by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin.
