Call for papers: Special issue on delivering sustainable housing in the climate-changed city: centring affordability and equity in policy

The Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy (JCCPE) publishes timely, evidence-based research that contributes to the urban climate agenda and supports governmental policy towards an equitable and resilient world. The Journal serves as a platform for dynamic content that highlights ambitious, near-term climate action, with a particular focus on human-centred solutions to today’s most pressing climate challenges. The Journal aims to equip mayors, policymakers, and urban practitioners with analysis, language, policies, and examples of concrete actions that reinvent and reinvigorate the idea of effective, purposeful government-led action.

Climate, housing and social justice are inextricably connected. The construction of new buildings contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and resource extraction, while people’s homes are increasingly vulnerable to climate hazards. Housing is always embedded in wider social, spatial, and infrastructural relations, and globally, it is often the most vulnerable populations in cities that are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, unaffordability and poor living conditions. 

The special issue asks: How can cities ensure safe and adequate housing for all residents, while respecting planetary boundaries? How can policy be firmly situated in an understanding of care, livelihoods, public space, services and community networks, particularly in contexts where housing is informally produced? This special issue seeks contributions that explore these questions and considers who benefits from interventions, who bears the cost, and whether actions might reproduce existing displacement or inequalities. 

We seek scholarly, collaborative, innovative, and practical perspectives on the following from diverse city contexts and geographies. We encourage interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral perspectives. Contributions might examine:

• Strategies to ensure sustainable housing for low-income and vulnerable residents, including populations displaced by climate disasters. Submissions could explore the integration of new digital tools and tech to planning, including utilisation of GIS and AI to integrate socio-economic variables into climate vulnerability assessments. This theme could also investigate inclusionary zoning and other land-use tools that secure long-term affordable housing and mitigate displacement and speculative pressures. Other topics for exploration could include climate-informed and equitable planning approaches that assess and reduce differential exposure and vulnerability to climate hazards, while limiting future reconstruction, insurance, and operating costs.

• Gender responsive design and planning. This theme will examine gendered experiences of housing insecurity and climate vulnerability, as well as women’s roles in housing production, adaptation, care and community organisation. Contributions could explore how cities deliver climate-resilient and affordable housing which includes gender-inclusive design and access, while sustaining the institutional conditions to bring it to fruition.

• Green buildings and construction. This theme will examine circular, modular, and low-carbon construction approaches that combine resource efficiency, reduced embodied emissions, affordability, and rapid delivery of new or upgraded housing. Contributions could explore case studies on building a workforce for sustainable construction and retrofits, as well as climate-resilient workforces, quantify emissions and energy savings potential for deep energy retrofits of buildings, or investigate policies to set new climate-responsive building standards and accelerate uptake of efficiency benchmarks. We would also welcome contributions examining rent regulation and affordability measures that balance housing security with incentives for maintenance, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation.

• Housing and climate resilience at the neighbourhood scale. Contributions on this theme will explore the relationship between housing, public space, infrastructure, essential services, mobility, care and community networks, and access to livelihoods. Submissions could examine strategies for upgrading informal settlements through secure tenure, resilient infrastructure, and climate-adapted housing improvements, or locally led approaches to planning and implementation. 

• Housing and sufficiency. This theme will explore strategies that increase housing supply while limiting new construction and land consumption. It could include submissions that explore adaptive reuse of vacant commercial buildings and offices into high-quality residential and mixed-use spaces, or policies and fiscal tools to bring vacant and underoccupied homes back into use. Contributions might examine strategies for brownfield regeneration and the transformation of obsolete or underused industrial urban areas into resilient, mixed-use, and climate-aligned neighbourhoods. It could also explore fair allocation and re-allocation policies. 

• Governance and implementation. Contributions on this theme will include the institutional, political, financial, and community conditions that enable housing and climate policies to move from plans and pilots to sustained action at scale.

Abstracts

1. Abstracts should be submitted as an attachment to Sarah Lewis at slewis@c40.org.
2. Please clarify in your email which manuscript type you would like to submit. 
3. For Original Research articles, please clarify your research question and methodology in your abstract.
4. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and show how your topic aligns with the aims of the Journal. In particular it should show how your paper will benefit city mayors and decision makers.