Net-Zero Research Forum: How to build back better

How can Leeds research help society build towards a climate-safe future as we transition out of the coronavirus crisis?

This event is the second in a series of Net-Zero Research Forums – informal webinars to discuss research and innovation ideas focused on achieving net-zero emissions. Researchers from different disciplines present ideas and provocative questions to stimulate debate and creativity. All are welcome to collaborate on this pressing global challenge.

This webinar, ‘How to build back better’, will feature two short presentations by:

• Professor Paul Chatterton, Professor of Urban Futures in the School of Geography
• Dr Lina Brand Correa, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment

Professor Paul Chatterton will present a talk titled ‘How to build sustainable cities after COVID-19’.

The coronavirus crisis is creating a real-time laboratory of what a more sustainable urban future might be. Professor Chatterton will discuss innovations including breaking car dependency, creating socially useful production and mass urban greening. The key issue is how these temporary innovations can be locked in and scaled up after lockdown to create a ‘just recovery’ that tackles the triple social, climate and nature crises.

Dr Lina Brand Correa will present a talk titled: ‘How to talk about, and refocus on, what we actually need’.

The social and economic crisis we currently find ourselves in due to COVID-19 has highlighted what we actually need to live well. However, it shouldn’t take a deep crisis to understand what our fundamental human needs are. The problem is that the frameworks we are usually forced to think within don’t allow us to consider anything beyond economic returns and individualised ways of living.

In her talk, Dr Brand Correa will explain what type of frameworks can allow people to think clearly about their needs, and propose how these could be applied in post-COVID-19 recovery plans (for public engagement and decision-making).

Professor Stuart Taberner, Dean for Interdisciplinary Research, will introduce the event.

Staff and students are also invited to join our Microsoft Team – Net-Zero Research Forum by following the link or using the join code 2zzzfir.

This event is for University of Leeds staff and students and is part of the University’s Interdisciplinary Research Development Programme.

Image shows Lilac Leeds, credit Andy Lord