Low Carbon Nation?

What does the transition to a Low Carbon Britain mean for the future development of cities and regions across the country? Does it reinforce existing ‘business as usual’ or create new transformational opportunities? Low Carbon Nation? takes an interdisciplinary approach to tackle this critical question, by looking across the different dimensions of technological, scientific, social and economic change within the diverse city and regional contexts of the UK. Hodson and Marvin set out how the transition to low carbon futures needs to be understood as a dual response to the wider financial and economic crisis and to critical ecological concerns about the implications of global climate change. The book develops a novel framework for understanding how the transition to low carbon is informed by historical legacies that shape the geographical, political and cultural dimensions of low carbon responses. Through a programme of research in Scotland, Wales, the North East of England, Greater London, and Greater Manchester, the authors set out different styles of low carbon urban and regional response. Through in-depth illustration of this in newly devolved nations, an old industrial region, a global city-region and in an entrepreneurial city, international lessons can be drawn about the limits and the unrealised opportunities of low carbon transition. This book is key reading for students on geography, economics, planning and social science degrees, as well as those studying sustainability in related contexts trying to understand the urban and regional politics of low carbon transition. It is also an essential resource for policymakers, public officials, elected representatives, environmentalists and business leaders concerned with shaping the direction and type of transition.

1. Introduction 2. Low Carbon Britain as Spaces of Experimentation 3. Re-Engineering State Low Carbon Architecture 4. Exclusive Capabilities and Low Carbon Strategies 5. The Low Carbon Saudi Arabia? Scotland 6. Knitting, Prioritising and Bounding the Low Carbon Region: Wales 7. The Low Carbon Industrial Phoenix? North East England 8. The Race for the Low Carbon Capital: Greater London 9. Low Carbon Economic Boosterism: Greater Manchester 10. Conclusion: What Kind of Low Carbon Britain?

Mike Hodson is a researcher at SURF (The Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures) at the University of Salford, and Simon Marvin is Professor at the DEI (Durham Energy Institute) Department of Geography, University of Durham University. Mike and Simon are well known for their research work on urban and regional transitions, territorial responses to climate change and resource constraint and the implications and consequences for new styles of urbanism. They have undertaken comparative work in the UK, within Europe and internationally focused on the world’s largest cities in London, New York and Tokyo. They have both been actively engaged in policy debates in the UK and internationally through UNEP and UNDP work on urban responses to ecological change.