Posts tagged with 'extreme weather'
The way scientists and policymakers measure heat as they seek to combat rising temperatures across the world’s cities requires more nuance than just looking at the daily outdoor temperature. There are a variety of tools that can help show a ...
Africa’s cities, from large metropolises to smaller towns, are increasingly characterized by growing urban sprawl. Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, is expanding by about 2,000 people and 5 hectares (10 football fields) every day, according to a World Bank estimate. Kumasi, an intermediary ...
Imagine stepping into a city where sustainability isn’t just built upwards but also downwards. While cities worldwide grapple with intensifying climate risks—flooding, heatwaves and infrastructure strain—an untapped solution lies right beneath our feet. The underground isn’t just for subways and ...
For the 21 million residents of Lagos, Nigeria, climate change is not a distant concept — it is a current reality. Over the past decade, the city has experienced devastating floods, exacerbated by the loss of over half of its wetlands ...
The way we make and use energy is changing. With prices falling and technology more widely available, clean energy uptake is growing rapidly. Investment in new clean power now outpaces investment in fossil fuels. This represents tremendous progress — but affordable technology ...
2024 was tumultuous. Cities saw record-breaking temperatures, a sharp uptick in climate-related disasters, violent conflict in too many places, and contentious elections that shifted local, national and regional politics. But amidst the tumult, cities centered themselves as global leaders in ...
2024 has been a tumultuous year: More than half the world’s population went to the ballot box — some voting for radical change — extraordinary weather events have devastated communities and countries have been rocked by continued violent conflict. Given ...
In January 2024, the Central Business District of Cape Town, South Africa, endured a historically brutal day of heat: temperatures climbed to 44 degrees C – the highest ever measured in the city. But on that same day, people in other parts ...
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently launched Mumbai’s first-ever climate budget, making it the first city in India and the fourth in the world (after Oslo, New York and London) to launch a climate budget. While Mumbai works to expand and institutionalize their ...
Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent, which is severely impacting cities and leading to tens of thousands of deaths, rising hospitalizations, school closures and people adjusting their lives to avoid inhospitable outdoor conditions. The oppressive heat is being felt across the ...
In Mathare – a collection of informal settlements northeast of Nairobi, Kenya, housing more than 500,000 residents – heat is reshaping daily existence. Most buildings in Mathare are constructed from materials like corrugated metal, which trap and magnify heat, forcing ...
Cities are home to more than half the world’s population: 4.4 billion people commuting, working, eating, shopping, and using light, heat and air conditioning. As a result, cities collectively produce over 70% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions warming the planet. They ...
Cities are not just places where people live—they are interconnected networks of people, services and economic activity. A city is a system of systems, bringing together transportation, energy, buildings, water, waste management and more. Transforming these interconnected systems is vital ...
Brazilians are currently living in a dystopian landscape. Thick smoke, oppressive heat and eerily orange sunsets blanket both major cities and small villages. Hundreds of cities are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution while thousands of hectares of forest burn. ...
The world recently experienced a 13-month streak of record-breaking global temperatures. And as blistering heat waves punish communities across several continents, 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record. Global average temperatures are now perilously close to exceeding 1.5 ...
