A city for all: leading climate transformation in an era of disinformation

Join C40 Cities and LSE Cities for the inaugural lecture honouring Nicky Gavron - the ‘Mother of C40’ and London’s pioneering former Deputy Mayor. We are thrilled to welcome Anne Hidalgo, former Mayor of Paris and Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) Global Ambassador, to deliver a headline keynote on the radical, often challenging, and ultimately transformative work of leading climate action in Paris and globally.

Following the keynote, a panel of world-leading mayors including, Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix and Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, C40 Co-Chair and Mayor of Freetown, will debate what it truly takes to build climate safe cities.

Be part of the conversation shaping the urban future.

The Nicky Gavron Memorial Lecture Series

The Nicky Gavron Memorial Lecture Series is an annual event hosted by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science. It is dedicated to honouring the life and legacy of Nicky Gavron, the visionary London politician, former Deputy Mayor and co-founder of C40, renowned for her pioneering work in urban planning and environmental policy.

Each year we invite a prominent urban leader, scholar or thought leader to engage with themes central to Nicky's work; climate action, city diplomacy, urban governance innovation and community engagement. Fostering dialogue, international exchange and nurturing the next generation of urban decision makers were values that Nicky championed. By bringing together to share experiences and ideas on the future of cities and urban society, the series aims to pay tribute to Nicky's values.

Meet our speakers and chair

Speakers

Anne Hidalgo, Former Mayor of Paris (2014-2026) and Global Ambassador for the Global Covenant of Mayors.

In 2014, Anne Hidalgo became the first woman to be elected Mayor of Paris. In 2020, she was re-elected Mayor of Paris, with an ambitious programme designed to transform Paris into a zero-carbon city by 2050. As Mayor of Paris until March 2026, Anne Hidalgo pursued an ambitious policy agenda focused on housing for families and universal, inclusive public services, working to improve air quality, combat climate change and adapt the city to the climate challenge, reducing car use, greening public spaces and prioritising pedestrians. In December 2015 in Paris, she organised the climate summit for local leaders, a major side event of COP21. She chaired the C40 Cities Leadership Group and served as President of the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) and Co-Chair of the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). Today, she continues in her role as Global Ambassador of the Global Covenant of Mayors, working on climate leadership with mayors around the world.

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown and Co-Chair of C40.

Having initially served from May 2018 to February 2023, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was re-elected to serve for a second term in June 2023. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr championed the four-year Transform Freetown plan, which detailed 19 concrete targets across 11 sectors and covered issues ranging from tackling environmental degradation to facilitating the creation of jobs for youth. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s notable achievements include: the construction and operation of Freetown’s first-ever wastewater treatment plant; the digitalisation and expansion of the city’s property rate system, the creation of over 3,500 jobs for youth and women; the planting and tracking of over 800,000 trees as part of the #FreetownTheTreeTown 1 million trees target; and securing the ongoing feasibility study for the introduction of a cable car system for the city. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr was featured by Time Magazine in the Time100 Next 2021 List and by the BBC in the BBC 100 Women 2020 List. She is a Chartered Accountant with an MSc in Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics and a BSc Hons in Economics from Fourah Bay College.

Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix.

Kate Gallego is the second elected female mayor in Phoenix history, and the youngest big city mayor in the United States. Mayor Gallego has focused on three key policy areas during her time in office: diversifying the economy, strengthening infrastructure investment, and working to make Phoenix a leader in sustainability. Her record of proven results includes leading the campaign to pass Phoenix’s citywide transportation plan through 2050, which was the largest local government commitment to transportation infrastructure in the country when it passed in 2015.

Remarks

David Miller, is the Managing Director of the C40 Centre, and former Mayor of Toronto from 2003 to 2010. He served as Chair of C40 Cities from 2008 until 2010. Under his leadership, Toronto became widely admired internationally for its environmental leadership, economic strength and social integration. He is a leading advocate for the creation of sustainable urban economies.

Mark Watts is Executive Director of C40 Cities, a global network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities united in confronting the climate crisis.

Chair

Philipp Rode, is Executive Director of LSE Cities, Associate Professorial Research Fellow and Associate Professor (Education) at the School of Public Policy. He is Co-Director of the LSE Executive MSc in Cities and Visiting Professor at University of St Gallen’s Institute for Mobility. Dr Rode is Co-Chair of the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative and leads its City Government Innovation Observatory and Lab. He has been leading interdisciplinary programmes in urban development and transport, sustainable urbanism and climate change, and city policy and governance at the LSE since 2003. Across his work, he is interested in multi-dimensional aspects of global urbanisation, sustainability and urban change.

LSE Cities is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, engagement and advisory activities in London and abroad.

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