Posts tagged with 'climate change'
Be a Hummingbird: It’s Time for Concerted Local Action on Climate Change
Be a Hummingbird: It’s Time for Concerted Local Action on Climate Change
The World Summit Climate & Territories (#WSCT) gathered 800 local decision makers in Lyon, France, July 1-2, 2015. In the lead up to COP21 (the 21st Conference of the Parties)—one of the most important climate meetings of the year—mayors and ...
New Climate Economy Bike Cities
How City Partnerships and a $1 Billion Global Cities Package Could Unlock $17 Trillion in Economic Growth
Climate-smart actions—such as investing in public transport and building efficiency—could generate $17 trillion dollars in net savings for cities by 2050 and cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than the annual emissions of Japan and Russia combined. Furthermore, with ...
Crowds in metro station
The Next Gold Rush, Excess Capacity, and the Advent of a “Peers Inc” World
From the breakdown of conventional ways of creating and sharing wealth to rising temperatures and increasingly extreme weather events, linear models of development are no longer providing an answer to the pressing challenges that the world is facing. At least, ...
Hackathon technology cell phone
Friday Fun: Hacking Our Way to Global Climate Action with #Climathon
Yesterday was an incredibly significant day for climate change action. Not only did the highly anticipated release of Pope Francis’ Climate Change Encyclical, which calls for people worldwide—regardless of religious affiliation—to make more sustainable lifestyle and consumption choices,  inspire action ...
A Brazilian slum, or favela, and a cross. Pope Francis's Encyclium addresses urban poverty and inequality as well as climate change. Chico Ferreira/Flickr
The First "Urban Pope"
Pope Francis is proving to be the first “environmentalist pope.” It turns out he also may be the first urbanist pope–not counting the aptly named Pope Urban of the 3rd Century. Today marks an important milestone in the global effort ...
Green spaces in cities, such as New York's High Line, promote an active, sustainable lifestyle for city residents. Photo by David Berkowitz/Flickr.
Designing for a Sustainable Future: A Q&A with Jared Green
For Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World, Jared Green asked 80 architects, landscape architects, urban planners, non-profit leaders, journalists, and artists—all people shaping the future of our built and natural environments—the same question: what gives ...
Ho Chi Minh City River Flooding Resilience
Three Enabling Factors for Building Urban Resilience
Due to climate change, hundreds of millions of people in urban areas across the world will be exposed to rising sea levels, greater inland flooding, more frequent and intense storms, and regular periods of both extreme heat and cold in ...
Climate Refugees Dhaka Bangladesh
The Urgency of Climate Refugees in Dhaka and Beyond
In the next 40 years, climate change is expected to cause 150 million people worldwide to leave their homes and migrate elsewhere. According to a report by the Environmental Justice Foundation, this puts 10 percent of the global population at risk ...
London Congestion Charge Zone
Ken Livingstone's Lessons for Congestion Charging and City Leadership
Ken Livingstone, the first ever mayor of London, known for implementing one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world, will come to Brazil in September for the Mayors´ Summit and the Cities & Transport International Congress. Here is ...
Mumbai, India and Building Efficiency
Crowdsourcing Local Knowledge to Make Buildings More Efficient
Investing in resource efficiency helps cities and their residents by cutting energy and water costs, creating jobs and creating cleaner, healthier air. And making cities more resource efficient is critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combating climate change. Improving ...
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 ...
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