In this public lecture, Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai explores how cities have emerged as critical actors in addressing global sustainability challenges, and why the future of climate action and sustainable development will be shaped by the world’s urban centres.

About the lecture

Rapid urbanisation over the past few decades has been one of the most significant social transformations of our time, carrying profound economic, environmental, and cultural implications. Cities are on the frontlines, not only in addressing a wide range of local and regional challenges, but also in mitigating and adapting to global environmental change, particularly climate change.

Increasingly, cities are being recognised as key subnational actors in international science and policy processes, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The battle for sustainability, especially across the Global South, will be won or lost in cities.

Drawing on more than two decades of research on urbanisation and urban sustainability, Professor Xuemei Bai will examine why cities must be reconceptualised as transformative agents for global sustainability. The lecture will explore what this shift in thinking entails, introduce recent theoretical and empirical advances in the field, and discuss how these insights can inform and reshape urban policy and planning for a more sustainable future.

About the speaker

Xuemei Bai is Distinguished Professor at the Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University, and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. Her research focuses on the science and policy of rapid urbanisation and urban system sustainability.

She has published extensively on these themes, including more than 30 papers in Nature, Science, and other Nature research journals, and is recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.

Professor Bai serves as an Earth Commissioner, Co-Chair of the Future Earth Governing Council, and Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and was named among the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Change Policy in both 2019 and 2022. Her contributions to sustainability research have been recognised with the Volvo Environment Prize (2018) and the Global Economy Prize (2021).