Roadmap for Glasgow's climate and social future to be revealed at Kelvingrove Museum
The 'Thriving Glasgow Portrait' is offering a vision and actions to reduce social inequalities in a climate-friendly way
A new vision of Glasgow’s future as a world-leading, climate-resilient city is set to be officially unveiled at an event at Kelvingrove Museum tonight.
The Thriving Glasgow Portrait offers a vision and urgent call to action for decision makers, organisations and local residents to consider how they can contribute to creating a sustainable city and achieve net-zero emissions by 2030.
The Portrait was developed by the University of Glasgow and Glasgow City Council as part of Glasgow’s role in the C40 Thriving Cities Initiative, launched during the 2021 UN climate conference COP26 held in Glasgow.
The Portrait aims to meet the needs of all Glasgow residents while respecting the planet’s ecological limits, using methods inspired by the 'Doughnut Economics' framework developed by economist Kate Raworth.
The Portrait is the culmination of an 18-month engagement process which brought together more than 130 policymakers, businesses, charities, scientists and local people from across the city.
It creates 44 ambitious social and environmental definitions that consider how to balance the needs of the planet with the wellbeing of people in Glasgow and around the globe.
It is a holistic framework for organisations and businesses across all sectors to identify their role in creating a thriving future for Glasgow.
'Leader for climate action and ambition'
Leader of Glasgow City Council Susan Aitken said: “Glasgow is a city increasingly recognised by the world as a leader for climate action and ambition; where the legacies of a heavy industrial, high carbon past drive our commitment to a socially just and ecologically safe city.
“The Thriving Cities Initiative is a guide to Glasgow’s social and economic transformation and how that can – and must – sit within planetary boundaries.
“By bringing together the social and ecological, the local and the global, this Portrait will also help us to monitor Glasgow’s progress on our journey towards being a truly thriving place, and to work with our communities and across all sectors to secure that.”
'Safe and just space'
Professor Jaime Toney is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Solutions and principal investigator of GALLANT, an ongoing research project which is using Glasgow as a ‘living lab’ to find fair and just solutions to the climate crisis.
She added: “We adapted the methodology to develop the Thriving Glasgow Portrait and find new ways for the city to settle in the ‘safe and just space’, where human and ecological wellbeing can be nurtured together.
“The Portrait as a whole represents the kind of whole-system transformation that we know is necessary to target the scale and urgency of the interlinked ecological and social challenges we face both as a city and as a planet.”