Abstract Body

Cities are innovating with purpose to achieve intersecting social and ecological objectives. Innovation is a driver of socio-technical systems change through application of new ideas, knowledge, products, processes, and policies. Purposeful innovation in the context of city climate change imperatives and Green Recovery agendas post-COVID-19 offers a renewed orientation to directing and evaluating change relative to socio-ecological values rather than (purely) economistic measures and a narrow focus on technological uptake. We consider how cities talk about innovation as a strategic climate goal and how research and innovation is institutionalised through climate action planning to date while reflecting on forms of city research and innovation undertaken in response to COVID-19. The research is based on a random sample of 98 city climate action strategies published since 2016 by cities committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), as well as public reporting on city responses to COVID-19 in the first half of 2020. This paper stems from a participatory action research project based at the Connected Cities Lab at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with Ironbark Sustainability for GCoM’s Innovate4Cities Initiative. Innovate4Cities was launched in 2018 following the Cities and Climate Change Science Conference in Edmonton, Canada, and aims to elevate city decision-maker perspectives to define a city research and innovation agenda, contextualized at a regional scale. We map the common and differentiated strategic climate research and innovation activities of cities by region to establish the scope of interventions, priority sectors, and shifting needs for climate action in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. By evidencing cities’ pursuit of purposeful innovation to address climate change and intersecting social challenges, the paper affirms the value of the urban scale in instituting alternative modes of governance and offers a preliminary framework of local needs and priorities to guide multilevel climate governance coordination and investment. The findings raise questions around the extent to which the implementation of purposeful innovations facilitates urban transformations that break with business as usual environmental degradation, resource extraction, and wealth inequality.