Online lecture: Affordable Housing and Climate Change

Watch the Recording: Affordable Housing and Climate Change

You can now catch up on the insightful, one-hour panel discussion with MSc in Sustainable Urban Development alumni Emma Ahmed and Paul Hackett, hosted by Oxford University's Sustainable Urban Development programme. 

Watch the recording ►

About the event

MSc in Sustainable Urban Development alumni Emma Ahmed and Paul Hackett shared their experiences with the challenges and opportunities of decarbonising affordable housing across both the global South and global North. Dr Patricia Canelas moderated the session.

About our speakers

Dr Patricia Canelas

Patricia is Course Director for the MSc in Sustainable Urban Development at Oxford Lifelong Learning. Trained as an architect and planner, she brings a solid grounding in the built environment, enabling her to address housing form, retrofitting, land-use change, and the integration of climate resilience into urban redevelopment. Her international research experience—spanning the UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, China, and the United States—offers valuable comparative insights that extend beyond a single urban context.

Emma Ahmed

Emma is an IFC EDGE Expert and seasoned advisor with more than 15 years of international experience driving sustainable urban development and climate-smart investment across Africa, Asia, and the UK. She specializes in structuring innovative green finance vehicles, mobilizing blended capital, and aligning investor requirements with policy and market realities. Emma has led high-impact assignments for IFC, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, including green building market assessments, affordable housing finance programs, and renewable energy infrastructure initiatives. She has directed large-scale funds such as the £60M CLIFF ( Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility) blended-finance platform and spearheaded the creation of a $75M green housing investment fund through Green City Homes International.  Emma completed the MSc in 2023.

Paul Hackett CBE

Paul is Chief Executive of Southern Housing, a London based housing association that owns and manages 80,000 homes.  Paul is an Honorary Professor at the UCL Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction.  He is a former member of the Homes for Londoners Board, advising the Mayor on London’s housing strategy.  Between 2017-2019 Paul Chaired the G15, representing London’s largest housing associations.  Paul is a Fellow of the RICS, the CIOB and CIH.  He completed the MSUD in 2022.