Cities are rare examples of good news in climate change

This week, 65 mayors visited the Vatican in order to discuss climate change, among other issues. The visit reflects on the role that cities play in discussions, which for far too long were only held at a global or national level. Due to their necessity and nature, cities have more success in tackling climate change than national or international governments.

More than half of the world’s people live in cities, which consume 75% of energy and emit 80 of greenhouse gases. Cities are not only sources of problems; they can also be innovative places for solutions.

While the story of climate changes is often portrayed as a depressing repeat of enormous problems and a race against time, the story about cities and climate is more positive.

The front line

Climate change is a major issue in cities because of their high population density and investments. In the West and Southwest, where there are drier climates, heat waves in summer and droughts may cause health issues and stress water resources for agriculture. Cities in the Northeast are experiencing more snowfall and wetter weather.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio talks with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh. Both cities are actively adapting to climate change. Tony Gentile/Reuters

Many cities in the world are located near the coast, and those that are most vulnerable are often the ones closest to it. Cities in developing countries are more susceptible to natural disasters, but they have less money to invest in upgrading their infrastructure. Dhaka and Mumbai are low-lying cities that face increased flooding due to extreme weather. Jakarta, Indonesia, is plagued by the flooding that occurs with every monsoon season. Land subsidence due to compaction caused by new skyscrapers and increased groundwater extraction because of a growing populace has caused the city to sink ten times faster as the Java Sea rises from climate change.

The most vulnerable are the poor urban residents, infants, and elderly.

Urban networks

Cities are nodes of a global flow of people, ideas, and practices. The world can be visualized in a number of ways. It is sometimes described as a map with separate states. But it could also be viewed as a network of global cities. Cities learn from each other, and test policies. The more successful ones are then adopted, adopted, and adapted across the global network.

In 2014, there were 1,054 mayors who represented a population of over 88 million citizens.

Local government can help improve air quality while also reducing greenhouse gas emission. Steven Buss/flickr, CC BY-SA

This organization assists cities in formulating policies to improve energy efficiency, adapt infrastructure and meet international standards. It does this by encouraging urban greening and discouraging sprawl. In the US, many cities have passed environmental laws that surpass US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, and in the absence national leadership even meet international standards.

C40 City Climate Leadership Group, meanwhile, is a group made up of some of the largest cities in the world. They are committed to combating climate change and reducing carbon emissions while increasing energy efficiency. The project began in 2006 with forty cities. Today, more than 75 have signed on. The combined population of these cities is more than half a million.

There is much we can learn from the people and communities living on the fringes of cities around the world. Between 1 and 2 billion people built self-built cities in the last 60 years.

They literally have made their urban environment. It is not my intention to romanticize slum conditions. Our current environmental situation is largely due to a blind reliance on high-tech technology. The slums around the world are a valuable lesson on how to create cities with limited resources. In fact, they are a living example of how to do more with less. This 60-year-old experiment in informal urban living has many lessons to teach us.

Climate change is bad news. Our planet becomes hotter and, therefore, more susceptible to environmental hazards. The cities are the places where adaptation and mitigation policies will be tested. The urban green economy is creating new occupations that are alternatives to the traditional ones. Cities are responsible for many of the environmental problems we face, but they also hold the key to solving them.