Conference - Urban Futures - Keynote speakers

Keynote Speakers

Check out our exciting line-up of keynote speakers, covering a wide range of vital and groundbreaking urban future topics!

Stay tuned for further details and updates!

UN-Habitat

Urban Planning and Design Lab (Urban Lab)

“Neighbourhoods First: Spatial Design as a Lever for Urban Energy Transitions”

Urban energy transitions begin at the scale closest to people’s lives—the neighbourhood. This keynote draws on UN-Habitat Urban Lab’s global experience in neighbourhood planning and the “My Neighbourhood” methodology to highlight how spatial design decisions—from layout and density to land use mix and mobility networks—directly impact energy demand, efficiency, and resilience. Through case studies from diverse urban contexts, the talk will demonstrate how integrated planning at the neighbourhood scale can reduce infrastructure needs, support passive energy strategies, and foster sustainable lifestyles. It argues that to achieve equitable, low-carbon cities, we must prioritise design approaches that embed energy efficiency into the very fabric of urban form.

Dr. Vincent Kitio (above)

Dr. Vincent Kitio is an architect with a master degree from the Institute of Architecture of Venice and a PhD in Appropriate Energy Technologies from the University of Rome "La Sapienza," Italy. He leads the Urban Energy Solutions Team at UN-Habitat, focusing on energy access for the urban poor, energy efficiency in the built environment, and renewable energy technologies deployment in urban areas.

Vincent develops and implement innovative and transformative clean energy and resource efficient built environment programs in Africa, such as mainstreaming energy efficiency strategies in building practices, building codes and building standards. He design projects that promote decentralized clean energy generation from solar, wind, hydro and municipal waste to energy. He promotes: carbon neutral building materials and sustainable adequate and affordable social housing.

Currently, Vincent oversees the development of two major city projects: the GEF 8 - Nairobi Sustainable City Integrated Project and the development of a 200MW renewable energy projects in west Cameroon. He is also creating an online platform to promote Net Zero Carbon Architecture for Africa.

Yassine Moustanjidi (below)

Yassine Moustanjidi is an Urban Planning Expert at UN-Habitat, specialising in integrative urban design and resilience. His work bridges research and practice, with experience across the MENA region, China, wider Asia, and Europe. He has contributed to a wide range of projects addressing urban planning, housing, green infrastructure, metropolitan urbanization, urban–rural linkages, and the preservation of urban heritage.
Before joining UN-Habitat, Yassine was a lecturer in the Department of International Urbanism at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and served as coordinator for the international project Future Megacities: Energy and Climate Efficient Structures in Urban Growth Centres, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Yassine holds a Diploma in Architecture from the École Nationale d’Architecture in Rabat, as well as a dual Master degree in urban design from the Tongji University in Shanghai and the Technical University of Berlin. He is currently a PhD candidate researching cross-border urban governance in the Singapore–Johor–Riau extended urban region.
Vincent Kitio is an architect with a master degree from the Institute of Architecture of Venice and a PhD in Appropriate Energy Technologies from the University of Rome "La Sapienza," Italy. He leads the Urban Energy Solutions Team at UN-Habitat, focusing on energy access for the urban poor, energy efficiency in the built environment, and renewable energy technologies deployment in urban areas.

Prof. Debra Roberts

IPCC AR6 WGII Co-Chair, UNFCCC Expert

"Overshoot – the urban future no one is talking about."

Professor Debra Roberts is a scientist who has spent four decades working at the science-policy-practice interface at local and international levels. Prof. Roberts headed the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit and Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department in eThekwini Municipality (Durban, South Africa) between 1994 and 2024. She was elected as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Co-Chair of Working Group II for the sixth assessment cycle (2015–2023). Prof. Roberts has held several international advisory roles, for example advising: United Cities and Local Governments; ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability; Global Commission for SDG Urban Finance; and the WMO World Weather Research Programme. She was also a lead negotiator for the South African delegation involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations. She is currently one of the experts working on UNFCCC’s Global Goal on Adaptation indicators. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and holds the Professor Willem Schermerhorn Chair in Open Science from a Majority World Perspective at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation at the University of Twente. She is President of the AXA Research Fund Scientific Board and Chair of the Board of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

Prof. Nilay Shah

Imperial College London

"Cities and Energy - A Systems View"

Professor Nilay Shah is a leading expert in sustainable energy and industrial systems at Imperial, where he is a Professor of Process Systems Engineering and Co-Director of the School of Convergence Science for Sustainability. His research focuses on sustainable processes, carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen infrastructure and whole-system energy modeling, with a particular emphasis on optimising low-carbon industrial processes and sustainable cities to support the transition to net zero. He has played a key role in large-scale energy transition projects, advising government and industry on the integration of CCS, hydrogen and renewables. He is also a member of the UK Hydrogen Delivery Council, working alongside industry leaders to accelerate the deployment of clean hydrogen.

Prof. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey

ETH Zurich

"Bridging design and science for unlocking urban resilient pathways"

Adrienne Grêt-Regamey is an environmental scientist and landscape planner. She has been Professor at the Chair of Planning Landscape and Urban Systems at the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development, ETH Zürich (Switzerland) since 2008. Currently, her research focuses on understanding how the interactions and/or actions of humans shape landscapes at various temporal and spatial scales, using different land-use decision models in forecasting and backcasting modes. For fostering participatory landscape planning, she investigates how people perceive the landscape in her lab, where state-of-the-art 3D visualizations and auralizations of landscape changes are generated and decision support tools developed. She also explores how an iterative process between design and science can allow co-creating place specific responses satisfying human needs and demands for well-being in a sustainable manner.

Dani Arnold

Swiss extreme mountaineer

Resilience & risk in complex environments

Dani Arnold is a Swiss professional mountaineer and mountain guide, raised at 1'700 m in the Schächental valley of Canton Uri. In 2011, he left his career as a mechanical engineer to follow an uncertain path into the mountains, a return to his roots. His passion for expeditions, rock climbing, and ice climbing has taken him to some of the most challenging faces on Earth. Driven by the belief that “it’s worth taking a risk to achieve your dreams,” combined with exceptional skill and determination, Arnold has set alpine milestones by uniting speed with technical difficulty, often pushing his limits in winter conditions. He holds speed records on the north faces of the Eiger, Matterhorn, and Grandes Jorasses, and has completed first ascents in Patagonia, Alaska, Pakistan, and China. Among his most demanding achievements are the mixed climbs The Hurting and Anubis in Scotland, regarded as both technically and mentally extreme. Despite setbacks and unsuccessful expeditions, Arnold retains an undiminished joy in climbing and a deep appreciation for the beauty of the mountains.