A Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance-funded study on how structural inequalities shape Europe’s built environment and climate transition

How do long-standing patterns of oppression shape cities’ ability to deliver climate justice?

This project examines how historic and contemporary systems of inequality—across national, urban, and built-environment levels—continue to constrain climate mitigation efforts and deepen social vulnerabilities. Led by the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) at ICTA-UAB, the research aims to identify the structural barriers that prevent cities from advancing climate justice and to highlight innovative practices that can support more equitable transitions. The final policy report will be completed in February 2026.

The report is developed in close collaboration with the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA) to ensure the experiences, needs, and voices of municipal actors and affected communities are central to the analysis. While focused primarily on mitigation, the study also draws on adaptation policies and projects to contextualize emerging challenges and opportunities.

Researchers:  Isabelle Anguelovski, Emilia Oscilowicz, Melissa García-Lamarca, Amalia Calderón-Argelich, Lisa Hannuschke, James Connolly

Objectives

The project analyzes how institutionalized injustices shape the built environment and limit equitable climate action in three European cities: Barcelona, Nantes, and Glasgow. It brings together policy analysis, fieldwork, and new interviews with municipal and community actors to expose structural constraints and identify strategies that support workers, small businesses, and marginalized communities in the climate transition.

Key components include:

  • Context setting: An overview of how oppression has been historically embedded in economic, social, and spatial systems in selected European countries, and how these injustices manifest in urban environments today.

  • National built-environment framing: Analysis of how national-level structures—such as spatial segregation, financing and ownership barriers, and discrimination in planning and construction sectors—influence inequality and climate outcomes.

  • Design and governance of the built environment: Assessment of how planning processes, representation in decision-making, and the inclusiveness of community consultation shape disparate outcomes for racialized, low-income, and other marginalized groups.

  • Workers and small businesses: Examination of working conditions and precarity in construction sectors, barriers to job training and advancement, and the impacts of emerging green building methods on local enterprises.

  • Climate transition risks and opportunities: Exploration of green gentrification risks, displacement pressures, and strategies that mitigate harms while improving outcomes for priority communities.

Methodology

  • Review of policy and planning documents and existing research on institutionalized exclusion and its implications for climate goals.

  • Comparative analysis of recent BCNUEJ fieldwork in Barcelona, Nantes, and Glasgow, focusing on gentrification, greening, climate policy, racism, classism, and gender- and age-based exclusion.

  • New interviews with municipal and metropolitan actors in each city to identify structural barriers and emerging equity-centered practices.

  • Analysis of tools, practices, and innovative policies from relevant CNCA cities addressing inequality for workers, small businesses, and marginalized communities.

  • Ongoing consultation with CNCA staff and stakeholder groups, including worker organizations, tenant and migrant associations, sustainability practitioners, and city networks.