Posts tagged with 'land use'
How Subnational Governments Are Shaping Colombia’s Next-Generation Climate Commitments
How Subnational Governments Are Shaping Colombia’s Next-Generation Climate Commitments
Colombia is currently updating its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) later this year. This update aims to highlight Colombia’s national priorities, such as biodiversity and food security, ...
To Fight Urban Sprawl, Cities Must Increase Access to Public Green Spaces
To Fight Urban Sprawl, Cities Must Increase Access to Public Green Spaces
Sprawl is a known and widespread challenge for rapidly growing cities across the world. Unplanned, inefficient development encroaches on natural resources and ecosystems, often reaching far beyond established transit networks. Residents of sprawling urban areas often face socioeconomic vulnerabilities and ...
Beyond the Thermometer: 5 Heat Metrics That Drive Better Decision-Making
Beyond the Thermometer: 5 Heat Metrics That Drive Better Decision-Making
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 ...
3 African Cities Restore Nature To Revitalize Their Rivers
3 African Cities Restore Nature To Revitalize Their Rivers
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 ...
Going Underground: Climate Resilience Beneath Our Feet
Going Underground: Climate Resilience Beneath Our Feet
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 ...
Countries Have Been Overlooking Their Biggest Climate Allies: Local and Regional Governments
Countries Have Been Overlooking Their Biggest Climate Allies: Local and Regional Governments
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 ...
To Meet 2030 Targets, Cities Need Systems Change
To Meet 2030 Targets, Cities Need Systems Change
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 ...
Connecting Community Infrastructure Projects Through Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
Connecting Community Infrastructure Projects Through Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
When you hear “infrastructure,” most people naturally think of the physical built environment — roads, bridges, buildings. There’s a lot less emphasis on other kinds of infrastructure that are equally as important, like civic infrastructure. Civic infrastructure encompasses a broad ...
4 Examples of Supporting Children's Play in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods
4 Examples of Supporting Children’s Play in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods
The International Day of Play (IDOP), held annually on June 11th, is a unifying global moment to celebrate the power of play for all children everywhere. IDOP draws attention to Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of ...
Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta's Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 
Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta’s Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 
On a Sunday afternoon in September 2023, a group of about 30 individuals, including a group of mostly female neighbors from nine kampungs (a common term for “urban villages” or “informal settlements” across multiple languages and nations in Southeast Asia) ...
Tragic Flooding in Brazil; A Wake-Up Call for the World
Tragic Flooding in Brazil; A Wake-Up Call for the World
After a week of record-breaking rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is experiencing an environmental and humanitarian tragedy. The death toll from the floods is in the dozens. The number of missing persons has surpassed 100. Hundreds are injured, ...
Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs
Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs
By early 2025, countries are due to unveil new national climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). These commitments form the foundation of international climate action, establishing emissions-reduction targets and other measures that countries promise ...
Transforming Transportation 2024: Mobilizing Finance for Climate Action
Transforming Transportation 2024: Mobilizing Finance for Climate Action
If a picture can tell a whole story, then the image below of an intersection in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, shows the past, present and future of global transformation in the transport sector. During Transforming Transportation 2024, which focused on ...
4 Climate Stories That Will Define 2024
4 Climate Stories That Will Define 2024
Last year shattered global heat records. The world witnessed the effects of rising temperatures in the form of devastating wildfires, severe flooding, extreme heatwaves and more. Poor countries and communities who have contributed the least to causing the climate crisis ...
Unpacking COP28: Key Outcomes from the Dubai Climate Talks, and What Comes Next
Unpacking COP28: Key Outcomes from the Dubai Climate Talks, and What Comes Next
The COP28 climate talks began with a new fund to address the increasingly severe losses and damage vulnerable countries face from climate impacts and concluded with the first international agreement to tackle climate change’s main driver: fossil fuels. Those bookends to the Dubai summit ...
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