Cities are a key cause of climate change, but they can also be key to solving it

Apr 5, 2022

This article is published in collaboration with Reuters

Cities are experiencing climate change. Image: Unsplash/Andrea Cau

Daniel Trotta

Journalist, Reuters

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Cities are responsible for more than two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to climate change.
However, many are already taking action to make themselves more environmentally friendly.
The cities that are growing the most – such as small and medium-sized ones in Asia and Africa – offer the biggest opportunity reduce reliance on automobiles and use sustainable building materials.
Rising urbanization means the world has to ensure climate-resilient development if it is to hit net zero.

The world's cities are a big driver of planet-warming emissions, but can play a major role in addressing climate change in the near future.

U.N. scientists on Monday laid out ways to rein in emissions and curb climate change, including a chapter on actions that city planners can follow.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found urban infrastructure and activities caused about two-thirds of today's emissions.

That means that cities can potentially "solve two-thirds of the problem. So that's pretty exciting," said Yale University geographer Karen Seto, a lead author of the chapter.

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How is the World Economic Forum supporting the development of cities and communities globally?

The Data for the City of Tomorrow report highlighted that in 2023, around 56% of the world is urbanized. Almost 65% of people use the internet. Soon, 75% of the world’s jobs will require digital skills.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Urban Transformation is at the forefront of advancing public-private collaboration in cities. It enables more resilient and future-ready communities and local economies through green initiatives and the ethical use of data.

Learn more about our impact:

Net Zero Carbon Cities: Through this initiative, we are sharing more than 200 leading practices to promote sustainability and reducing emissions in urban settings and empower cities to take bold action towards achieving carbon neutrality.
G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance: We are dedicated to establishing norms and policy standards for the safe and ethical use of data in smart cities, leading smart city governance initiatives in more than 36 cities around the world.
Empowering Brazilian SMEs with IoT adoption: We are removing barriers to IoT adoption for small and medium-sized enterprises in Brazil – with participating companies seeing a 192% return on investment.
IoT security: Our Council on the Connected World established IoT security requirements for consumer-facing devices. It engages over 100 organizations to safeguard consumers against cyber threats.
Healthy Cities and Communities: Through partnerships in Jersey City and Austin, USA, as well as Mumbai, India, this initiative focuses on enhancing citizens' lives by promoting better nutritional choices, physical activity, and sanitation practices.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us.

Many cities are already acting. London has introduced fees on highly polluting vehicles in the city center, and Paris has outlawed diesel cars.

Other actions cities can take to combat climate change include improving energy efficiency in buildings, designing streets to avoid traffic congestion, planting "green roofs" and incorporating more parks and trees that help remove some carbon dioxide emissions and also help to keep cities cooler, the report says.

Planning for and encouraging population density is recommended to prevent rural and suburban sprawl, which is less energy efficient and destroys natural habitats.

"The 21st-century will be the urban century, defined by a massive increase in global urban populations," the report said. About 55% of the world's population lived in cities in 2018, a figure expected to jump to 68% by 2050 - with Asian and African cities seeing the biggest increases.

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Climate-friendly urban policies would also improve public health by reducing air pollution, the report said.

For the world to have a chance of limiting global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial levels, cities need to act fast - and financing would need to be boosted significantly, the report says.

Cities in 2020 were responsible for up to 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions, up from 62% in 2015. Aggressive climate action could bring city emissions to net-zero by 2050. But failing to act could instead see urban emissions double in that time, the climate change report said.

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