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In efforts to combat global warming, rapidly evolving cities, which produce most of the greenhouse gases, must be turned into clean ecological systems.
About 85% of humanity will live in 2100 in cities. Many people will live in big cities, megacities, with over 10 million inhabitants. These urban jungles are climate killers. Built of steel, with an industry that produces a lot of carbon dioxide, being supplied and heated by coal, oil and gas, cities are responsible for about 75 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.
The latest UN report proposes ways to combat the climate crisis caused especially by cities. Carbon dioxide generated by urban buildings, both during construction and use, has increased by 50 percent since 1990, the report said. This means that this sector must reduce the carbon it emits quickly and rapidly if global warming is to remain within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1990 level.
The carbon dioxide produced can be reduced to zero by 2050 if cities are supplied with renewable energy, buildings are insulated and converted into energy-efficient buildings, and transportation is electrified. Returning cities to ecology would trap carbon dioxide and help fight the greenhouse gases that are deadly, very problematic for large metropolises.
But since 60 percent of the buildings that will be part of cities by 2050 have not yet been built, the dream of a climate-neutral city that produces little or no carbon dioxide is achievable, experts say.
Cities can lead the mitigation of climate warming
Cities can become micro-worlds of successful climate change mitigation, says Rogier Vandenberg, global deputy director at the Ross Center for Sustainable Cities at the World Resources Institute, a US-based non-governmental organization.
“There is a great potential in cities because of the large concentration of people, which means we can greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” he says. “The solution is in the cities.”
However, the challenges remain, both in achieving change in compact, high-density cities where people live next to each other and in reducing the need to use vehicles. meet all needs at a 15 minute walk or bike distance.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, experiments have been carried out to reduce travel time by giving people the opportunity to live and work in a single area, such as Melbourne’s 20-minute neighborhood and Paris’s 15-minute neighborhood.
“We have known for decades that cities function better, are cleaner, more sustainable, more convenient when you provide services where people live,” says Vandenberg.
A new vision in urban planning
But this would require new visions in urban planning away from the horizontal expansion that is evident in many major cities of the world. “We have to think quite differently about urban planning, how to adapt cities,” says Vandenberg.
Equal access to an efficient urban transport network is very important if poor urban communities are to be turned into climate-neutral cities.
Citizens in low-income countries spend 35 percent of their income on transportation, due to urban sprawl and the inability to live where they work, Vandenberg notes. The Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, which aims to support cities to return to neutral by 2050, focuses in part on electrifying urban transport, including buses, in Africa’s fastest-growing cities. The digitalization of transport infrastructure will also be key in efforts to adapt transport to the needs of the people.
But since transport is responsible for only 20 percent of carbon dioxide, according to Vandenberg, the main problem remains buildings, which produce three times as much carbon dioxide.
More capital is needed in the market and greater investor support to build buildings that emit less carbon dioxide and turn other buildings into energy efficient buildings, he explains.
Universal standards for sustainable construction should also be set, which will encourage investment from pension funds and other funds seeking to decarbonize their businesses. So we need to better understand what the benefits of the economy are. “Currently, the largest number of jobs for a $ 1 million investment is in converting buildings into renewable energy buildings,” Vandenberg said.
Europe aims to create carbon neutral cities by 2030
In European cities, such as Copenhagen, the dream has already become a reality. The Danish capital is well on its way to becoming a climate-neutral city by 2025, working for more than 10 years to replace the city’s 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year with a new intelligent energy grid. renewable.
Meanwhile, a program has been launched to make 100 European Union cities climate-neutral and intelligent by 2030. The ultimate goal is for all cities to become climate-neutral by 2050.
According to estimates by Material Economics, a Swedish company for sustainable development issues, for a city with an average population of 100 thousand inhabitants the costs to become a climate-neutral city by 2030, could be higher than 1 billion euros. Funding and knowledge assistance is provided by Net Zero Cities, an EU consortium.
Healthier cities
About 85 percent of Europeans are thought to live in urban areas by 2050, and mayors are realizing the “other benefits” that come from climate neutrality, including clean air, which improves citizens’ health and reduces pollution. says Matthew Baldwin, manager of the EU project for 100 climate-neutral cities.
“People living in cities are very climate conscious,” he added. This is partly because urban dwellers are the first to face the consequences of pollution. Many cities have been built near ports and are endangered by the seas, the level of which is rising.
The EU Neutral Climate Program works with citizens to make them more aware of the benefits of pro-climate action. “There can be no climate-neutral project without citizen engagement,” says Baldwin. To this awareness was added after the war in Ukraine the need for energy independence, which can be achieved quickly both by increasing the capacity for renewable energy and by increasing the efficiency of buildings.
“The European Commission is looking at all the ways to move immediately from the use of Russian hydrocarbons to renewable energy,” says Baldwin. “And the best place to start is with the cities, because of the population density. In cities, travel distances are shorter, the use of public transport is easier, you can walk, ride a bicycle and electric vehicles. “
‘Cities can move forward and faster’
Globally, cities are increasing their ambitions to return to climate-neutral cities, in line with or even higher than the targets set in the Paris Agreement on carbon dioxide.
30 cities have already reached the peak of carbon dioxide in 2020, as part of the C40 Cities initiative, which aims to support thousands of cities in returning by 2050 to cities that do not produce carbon dioxide — including Athens, Austin, Barcelona, Berlin , New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stockholm and Warsaw.
“Supplying our cities with renewable energy is the foundation on which a carbon-free economy is built,” said Eric Garcetti, mayor of the C40 initiative and mayor of Los Angeles, last September. Los Angeles, which is now supplied with 40 percent renewable energy, will be able to supply 80 percent of renewable energy by 2030. A 100 percent clean energy grid is intended to be set up before 2035, while a complete disconnection from the use of coal, envisages the transition to hydrogen. “Cities can move faster and faster than the whole nation,” says Baldwin. “I feel that we will move much faster than we think.” / DW
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