Low Carbon Nation?

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.

• 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?

A must read for those who believe that both carbon and socially just transformations are possible if a different political imaginary can be nurtured. – Erik Swyngedouw, Professor of Geography, University of ManchesterThis is a very important book – not only for researchers, but for politicians and citizens concerned with the prospect of a low carbon future. – Harald Rohracher, Professor, Linköping UniversityIt is an essential resource for academics, policy makers, public officials, elected representatives, environmentalists and business leaders seeking answers to difficult questions which confront our cities and regions. – Andy Jonas, Professor of Human Geography, Hull UniversityThis is a really useful dissection of the complexities of producing a low carbon society. It provides very significant detail on how low carbon varies across Britain, the causes of such variations and policies that might enhance low carbonism within different areas. – John Urry, Distinguished Professor, Lancaster UniversityOne of the great merits of this book is that it frames the low carbon debate in geo-political terms and refuses to be seduced by fashionable technological fixes. – Kevin Morgan, Professor of Governance and Development, School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University