Julio Lumbreras is one of this year’s Climathon Award judges. Julio is a member of the European Commission Mission Board on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University educating students on sustainable cities. 

Since 2000, he has been focused on air quality and climate change at the urban level, working alongside private companies, NGOs and cities to transform urbanised regions into decarbonised, climate resilient hubs. 

Both of his roles centre on contributing to tackling climate change. As professor, he is educating people to transform the world and tackle the climate emergency. As member of the mission board on cities, he is fostering the transformation of cities to become climate neutral in the coming decade.

Climate-KIC caught up with Julio to hear his thoughts on the importance of city and citizen collaboration to assist with the transformation and get a sneak peek into knowing what he’s going to be looking out for at the Climathon Awards.

Julio Lumbreras, member of the European Commission Mission Board on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities

It is difficult to pick just one pressing issue facing cities today because they are all so interconnected. It is impossible to face any urban challenge without a systemic approach. However, inequalities both between and within cities is a serious and pressing issue that needs addressing.

We need to trigger innovation on climate change and the best way to do this is by using collective intelligence to solve challenges. If we create the conditions where people from the private sector, governments, academia, and civil society can talk and collaborate in a radical way, innovation will arise to create the holistic change that is needed. 

It is important for citizens and cities to work together to tackle these challenges otherwise we will see the urban version of the “benevolent despotism”. Everything for the people, nothing by the people.

Although citizens do not need to deliver changes individually, it is important that we engage them in the co-design and co-creation of solutions to solve our challenges. Afterwards, they should collaborate on the evaluation and accountability of the solutions. This is how they can deliver changes.

Whilst judging the Climathon Awards I will be looking for an inspiring, systemic, action plan to decarbonize cities that leaves no one behind and, if possible, one that shows the economic case for itself. 

About Climathon Awards

Run by Europe’s Largest public-private partnership, EIT Climate KIC in partnership with Crowther Lab, the Climathon Global Awards called for cities and citizens around the world to engage in climate action, to find new systems level solutions to tackle the worsening climate crisis. 

The most visionary innovators have been chosen to attend the Climathon Global Awards Ceremony on the 31st January in Paris during the ChangeNOW summit, where all finalists have the chance to win funding and expert support to make their ideas a reality.