Posts in the 'Green Growth' category
Soweto, Johannesburg’s largest township, faces dual climate threats from flooding and extreme heat. These threats are compounded by the township’s soaring unemployment and an economy dominated by low-value and informal sectors. As a result, many residents have unpredictable livelihoods and ...
Today’s global challenges of prolonged fuel crises, rising consumer prices, dwindling natural resources and new workforce pressures demand disruptive innovators willing to test new technologies and business models that enable countries to rapidly transform their economies. Accelerating these national ...
Well-located housing — integrated with mass transit, public services and climate-resilient design — is an instrument of urban productivity, not an add-on to urban planning. In Bogotá, this integration is becoming central to how the city responds to accelerating climate ...
Climate change is one of the greatest health threats we face. By 2050, it could claim nearly 16 million deaths across low- and middle-income countries. Extreme heat, the spread of climate-sensitive diseases like malaria and cholera, and disruptions to hospitals and other healthcare could ...
When torrential rains hit Kinshasa in April 2025, the city of 20 million came to a standstill. Floodwaters submerged more than half the city as the Ndjili River and smaller streams overflowed, quickly overwhelming the city’s drainage capacity. Lives were ...
On a fair-weather day, one can often gauge the livability of a dense city neighborhood by a simple test: are children active outside? The new Guide to creating urban public SPACES for children takes that test seriously by turning it ...
The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) convenes this month in Baku amid converging geopolitical and economic shocks: conflict-driven energy spikes, rising debt burdens and persistent inflation. Around the world, these shocks are squeezing public budgets and household incomes alike. ...
There’s a growing housing crisis that’s impossible to ignore. Consider the stats: Nearly 3 billion people lack access to housing that is both safe and connected to basic services like energy, water and sanitation. Around 40% of the world’s population lives in ...
Every day, millions of children ride to school in diesel buses that expose them to pollution linked to serious health issues. Replacing those buses with electric models has benefits that go far beyond a quieter ride and cleaner air. Electric ...
In Shenzhen’s Houhai Central District, summer temperatures climb higher each year. Last summer, the city recorded a blistering 37.5 degrees C (99.5 degrees F), one of its hottest days in decades. For residents in dense, aging apartment blocks, staying cool ...
Cities have always been shaped by the infrastructure they choose to host. Railways defined the industrial city. Highways reorganized post-war suburbs. Metro systems and airports rewired the geography of globalized urban economies. Today, another form of infrastructure is expanding rapidly ...
On rainy days, Meliana Mei walks along an elevated pathway from her home in Makassar, Indonesia, to the market. Water collects in trenches below the path and drains away, giving her a much safer way to reach her destination. “Our ...
Every Sunday morning, Bogotá, Colombia, transforms its streets. Over 120 kilometers (75 miles) of major city roads are closed to cars and opened to cyclists, walkers and runners in the Sunday Ciclovía. The 50-year-old weekly tradition has evolved from a social ...
Picture this: you wake up on a Sunday morning and hop on a bike with your family or a close friend. Within a few minutes you arrive at a coffee shop, order your drink of choice while listening to the ...
At Eastlands Library in Nairobi, Kenya, students compare notes and work through assignments as music from a tree-lined courtyard drifts through the windows. In another part of the library, a dance instructor is leading a group of children through breathing ...
