Building a better energy future with Braga and Santiago (Cities and Climate Solutions)

This webinar brings together representatives from Braga, Portugal and Santiago, Chile to discuss the topics of energy poverty, urban renewable energy, building energy regulations, energy retrofit, and just transition. The discussion will be moderated by City Diplomacy Lab Director Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi.
The Cities and Climate Solutions webinar series is co-organized with the City Diplomacy Lab at Columbia Global Centers | Paris.
This webinar is co-sponsored by Columbia Global Centers | Nairobi, Columbia Global Centers | Santiago, and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF).
Overview
In the face of the climate crisis, cities across the world are emerging as integral problem-solvers in the development of an effective, multi-layered response. This series, launched in Spring 2023 with events on food and water, aims to bring together the representatives of cities that have implemented some of the most impactful and sustainable actions.
This second season of the webinar series kicked off in November 2023 and covers the topics of air, energy, and waste. Each webinar will see the participation of representatives of three cities and will be moderated by a representative from Columbia University. In order to encourage geographic representativeness, each webinar will host city representatives from different regions and countries.
This series celebrates the leadership of cities and provides inspiration for the thousands of cities and local governments around the world committed to shaping the global response to climate change.
Speakers
Braga
Hélder Costa’s mission is to support organizations, both public and private, in incorporating sustainability principles and values, ensuring that they conduct their activities responsibly, become more competitive, and promote innovation and sustainable development.To achieve this, he draws upon the knowledge acquired throughout his career, serving as a researcher in the development of sustainability assessment methodologies for university campuses and as an advisor to the Vice Presidency for Infrastructure and Sustainability at the University of Minho. The university was recognized in 2017 among the top 50 in the world in this field. Currently, he is a member of the Office to Support the Presidency at the Municipality of Braga, supporting the city's sustainable development strategy. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering, with a specialization in Hydraulics and Environment. Recently, he completed a postgraduate program in Management Control and Strategic Execution at Porto Business School, an institution where he has been a speaker at events related to Sustainable Development. He was identified in the list of '100 Oportunidades,' a project by Global Shapers Lisbon of the WEF.
Santiago
Mauricio Fabry is a veterinary doctor from the University of Concepción with studies at the University of California and Adolfo Ibáñez University. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Doctorate program in Biodiversity Management and Conservation at the Universidad Santo Tomás de Chile. Mauricio worked for 18 years at the Santiago Metropolitan Park, of which he was its director for 7 years. He led the Ecoparque project at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. He is currently Head of the Department of Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Action in the Metropolitan Regional Government of Santiago.
Moderator
Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi is the founding director of the City Diplomacy Lab. He is a lecturer in City Diplomacy at Columbia Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE | Paris), Sciences Po - PSIA, and École Polytechnique.
He regularly advises international organizations, national governments, city networks, and municipalities on how to fully unfold the added value of city diplomacy.
Author of City Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), he holds a dual PhD in Political Theory from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS, Rome).