Posts tagged with 'climate change'
Flooding and resilience in Dhaka
Should we inch or stride towards urban resilience?
Cities in the 21st century face two monumental shifts: growing urban populations and a rapidly changing climate. As the world’s urban population nears five billion, cities will need to build more infrastructure in the first 30 years of this millennium ...
Ahmedabad, India and New Climate Economy report on sprawl
Why smart growth cities are safer, healthier, and wealthier
Developing countries are projected to gain 2.2 billion new urban residents between now and 2050. Governments and city leaders have a choice: they can develop cities that are sprawled and auto-dependent, or they can develop cities that are connected, compact, ...
River Flooding in Bangkok, Thailand
Why cities need to address river flooding now
Cities contribute 70 percent of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and play an essential role in climate change mitigation. However, since average global temperatures are already rising and the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly palpable around the world, ...
Londrina, Brazil. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brasil.
Transport plays a key role in urban air quality
The city is like an organism, and the swift movement of people and goods is the oxygen that sustains its well-being. When this circulation is inhibited, it significantly compromises the quality of urban life. For example, private cars account for ...
Mexico City's Metrobús BRT system. Photo by Taís Policanti/EMBARQ Mexico.
Who needs cars? Smart mobility can make cities sustainable
This article was originally published on January 15, 2015 by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  Last year marked an important tipping point: for the first time, half of the global population lives in cities. Cities currently add 1.4 million people each ...
At the second panel of Transforming Transportation, panelists discussed the encouraging trends in sustainable transport and development that make mobility an important part of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ.
Live from Transforming Transportation: Advancing climate action through sustainable mobility
Transforming Transportation (#TTDC15) is the annual conference co-organized by EMBARQ, the sustainable urban transport arm of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, and the World Bank. This year’s conference focuses on Smart Cities for Shared Prosperity, and takes place on ...
Though cities contribute a majority of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, they also provide forums for collaboration among diverse stakeholders to incubate climate change solutions. Photo by Wolfgang Staut/Flickr.
Why cities are the solution to climate change: A Q&A with Ani Dasgupta
2015 is a year of utmost importance for the global sustainable development agenda, and cities will play a pivotal role. Landmark global decisions over the next 12 months provide opportunities to unlock the potential of cities and improve quality of ...
A type of fine particulate matter, black carbon causes millions of premature deaths in cities worldwide and is considered the second most important human emission contributing to climate change. Photo by Eduardo M.C./Flickr.
Cities fighting black carbon to achieve public health and climate benefits
Black carbon – a short-lived climate pollutant emitted into the air by incomplete combustion of fuels – is a both major contributor to climate change and a concern for public health in cities. At the global scale, black carbon has ...
As cities urbanize worldwide, they must focus on connected, compact, and coordinated development to grow their economies and tackle climate change. Photo by Scutter/Flickr.
‘We have to get urbanization right’: A Q&A with Felipe Calderón on cities in the New Climate Economy
2015 is a year of utmost importance for the global sustainable development agenda, and cities will play a pivotal role. Landmark global decisions over the next 12 months provide opportunities to unlock the potential of cities and improve quality of ...
Urban sustainability trends to watch
TheCityFix’s Year in Review: Urban sustainability trends to watch
With urban growth come a number of opportunities to positively transform our cities. And while the unique challenges faced by city leaders are shaped by local contexts and histories, their actions reveal broader trends in how cities worldwide are changing ...
This rendering from Masdar City shows one version of an ideal city of the future. What does your city look like? Photo by Forgemind Archimedia/Flickr.
Friday Fun: Write about your ideal city to win a trip to Masdar City
What will your ideal city look like in 2030? That is the question of the third annual international blogging contest hosted by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company behind Masdar City. One winner will receive a paid trip to Abu ...
Peru recently received an $11 million grant from the NAMA facility that will help the country attract significant funding for its multi-billion dollar sustainable urban transport improvement plans. Photo by Anton Muhajir/Flickr.
Peru’s climate leaders awarded over $11 million for low-carbon urban transport
Peru was recently awarded €9 million ($11.14 million) for its urban transport Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) by the German and British NAMA facility. This climate finance award will allow the Peruvian government to leverage $50 million from development aid agencies – especially KfW, ...
Rio de Janeiro is using the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC) – the first internationally accepted standard for measuring city-level emissions – to inform actions on climate change. Photo by Gerben van Heijningen/Flickr.
Hundreds of cities poised to replicate Rio’s approach to measuring and reducing emissions
Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s leading cities injecting sustainability into its planning. In 2011, Mayor Eduardo Paes enacted an ambitious climate change law, setting a goal to avoid 20% of its emissions by 2020, based on 2005 levels. There ...
As the impacts of climate change intensify, cities can learn from best practices to become more resilient to climate impacts. Photo by Fede Cabrera/Flickr.
Three climate adaptation lessons from Brazil’s cities
Brazil’s cities, home to 85% of the country’s population, are already feeling the effects of climate change. Intense rains and floods in Rio de Janeiro are causing fatal landslides with high social and infrastructure costs. Temperatures are climbing to record-breaking highs in Porto ...
New studies show that economic growth and climate action can go hand in hand through sustainable urban development strategies. Photo by Alex Prolmos/Flickr.
Cities can lead the way as drivers of better growth and a better climate
Cities can drive better economic growth while also reducing climate risk. They are at the forefront of the fight to protect the climate and eradicate poverty, and are often trailblazers in a world in which nation states typically move more ...
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