Thursday, March 30, 2023
12:00 pm – 1:35 pm ET
In person and via Zoom

Globally, 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions emanate from cities. At the same time, cities are being hit increasingly by climate change related shocks and stresses, ranging from more frequent extreme weather events to inflows of climate migrants. This report analyzes how these shocks and stresses are interacting with other urban stresses to determine the greenness, resilience, and inclusiveness of urban and national development. It provides policymakers with a compass for designing tailored policies that can help cities and countries take effective action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

This discussion, organized by the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP) at GWU in partnership with the World Bank IBRD-IDA, will review the World Bank’s recent flagship report on climate change, titled “Thriving – Making Cities Green, Resilient, and Inclusive in a Changing Climate“.

Please note that those who register to attend in person are strongly encouraged to attend as lunch will be ordered for the specific number of registrants. Buffet lunch and coffee provided with the support of two University Seminar Series:
– The Global Socio-Economic Costs of Climate Change and Unsustainable Urbanization
– Urban Governance, Multidisciplinary Collaboration, and Climate Change

Agenda

12.00-12.15 – Introductions. Chair: Remi Jedwab (GWU), Director of IIEP, Economics & International Affairs

12.05-12.15 – Mini-presentation by students from GWU’s Geography Department: Chair: David Rain (GWU) Climate Change and Sustainable Cities – The Example of Washington DC

12.15-1.05 – Main Presentation. Chair: Tanner Regan (GWU), Assistant Professor, Economics and International Affairs

Presented by Esha D. Zaveri (World Bank) – Senior Economist with the World Bank’s Water Global Practice. Presentation of the World Bank’s Flagship Report on Climate Change & Cities: Thriving – Making Cities Green, Resilient and Inclusive in a Changing Climate (no interruptions)

World Bank speakers participating online: Nancy Lozano-Garcia (Lead Urban Economist), Mark Roberts  (Lead Urban Economist) and Megha Mukim (Senior Economist, Team Lead for Competitive Cities)

12.40-12.50 – 10 mins Discussion by Ryan Engstrom (GWU), Professor, Geography & Director of Data Science

12.50-1.05 – 15 mins Discussion and Q&A

1.10-1.35 – Discussion. Chairs: Malcolm Russell-Einhorn (ESIA) and Chas Cadwell (Urban Institute) Toward a Meaningful Interdisciplinary Urban Climate Assessment Framework: Selecting, Using, and Communicating Relevant, Contextualized Urban Climate Indicators and Scenarios

About the Speaker

Esha Zaveri is a Senior Economist with the World Bank’s Water Global Practice with professional interests in water resource management, climate impacts, environmental health, and the use of geospatial data with statistical analysis to study interactions between the environment, and social and economic systems. She has published on these topics in leading scientific journals and has authored flagship reports of the World Bank on water scarcity (Uncharted Waters, 2017), water pollution (Quality Unknown, 2019), and migration (Ebb and Flow, 2021). Prior to joining the World Bank, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Food Security and the Environment where she remains an affiliated scholar. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Economics and Demography from Pennsylvania State University.