Posts tagged with 'public health'
These Countries Are Electrifying their Bus Fleets the Fastest
These Countries Are Electrifying their Bus Fleets the Fastest
In cities around the world, people are embracing electric buses, which provide a quieter, smoother ride without the harmful pollution from traditional gas and diesel buses. For example, bus riders in Pune, India, will skip boarding a diesel bus to wait for an electric ...
The Small Acts Building Urban Climate Resilience
The Small Acts Building Urban Climate Resilience
Resilience in cities is often framed around large-scale infrastructure projects and sweeping policy shifts. We see headlines about billion-dollar climate adaptation plans, smart cities leveraging AI for disaster response and ambitious net-zero pledges. But some of the most impactful solutions ...
Financing Urban Resilience: Making Nature-Based Solutions Central to Africa’s Development Agenda
Financing Urban Resilience: Making Nature-Based Solutions Central to Africa’s Development Agenda
Despite accounting for less than 3% of global terrestrial area, cities have had an outsized impact on our approach to planetary boundaries, affecting biodiversity and consumption of materials and energy. Studies show that cities have become responsible for 78% of carbon emissions, ...
From Work to Transportation, Extreme Heat Is Reshaping Urban Life
From Work to Transportation, Extreme Heat Is Reshaping Urban Life
By midday in Mathare, a densely populated informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, the sun beats down on the tight rows of wooden stalls and corrugated metal rooftops. At an elevation of 5,889 feet (1,795 meters), Nairobi has long been known ...
The Compelling Business Case for Climate Adaptation
The Compelling Business Case for Climate Adaptation
Extreme weather events like floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense around the globe, disrupting communities and the infrastructure they rely on. In 2024 alone, the world endured 58 disasters that wreaked over a billion dollars in damages each. Yet ...
Students Take the Wheel in Push for More Electric School Buses
Students Take the Wheel in Push for More Electric School Buses
Upset with adults for not taking the climate crisis seriously and inspired by the youth climate strikes around the globe, students in Arizona found a way to get adults to listen. In 2019, they founded the Arizona Youth Climate Coalition ...
Low-Emission Zones: A Blueprint for Delhi's Urban Transformation
Low-Emission Zones: A Blueprint for Delhi’s Urban Transformation
India’s urban centers are grappling with a severe air pollution crisis that poses a significant threat to public health and urban livability. Studies suggest that each year, Delhi records approximately 12,000 air pollution-related deaths, accounting for 11.5% of its total fatalities. Despite ...
How Cities Are Placing People at the Center of Urban Mobility Transformations
How Cities Are Placing People at the Center of Urban Mobility Transformations
What does it take for cities to create a true systems change that creates a holistic, positive shift of the entire urban system? Finding and celebrating examples of this feat is at the heart of the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities. Since ...
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 ...
In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nature-Based Solutions Take Root
In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nature-Based Solutions Take Root
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 ...
Empowering Justice40: How Community-Based Organizations Are Driving Environmental Justice Forward
Empowering Justice40: How Community-Based Organizations Are Driving Environmental Justice Forward
Since President Joe Biden launched the Justice40 Initiative in January 2021, over $600 billion has been designated for more than 500 programs across 19 federal agencies. This funding supports climate-related infrastructure initiatives with a commitment to ensuring 40% of the benefits reach ...
What Would Cities Look Like With 3 Degrees C of Warming vs. 1.5? Far More Hazardous and Vastly Unequal
What Would Cities Look Like With 3 Degrees C of Warming vs. 1.5? Far More Hazardous and Vastly Unequal
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 ...
What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide
What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide
On July 22, the world experienced its hottest day in recorded history. The global average temperature reached 17.2 degrees C (62.9 degrees F), prompting UN Secretary-General António Guterres to issue a global call to action on extreme heat. The problem of extreme ...
Lessons from China’s Growing Adoption of Zero-Emission Trucks
Lessons from China’s Growing Adoption of Zero-Emission Trucks
Getting more zero-emission trucks on the road is an important transportation shift that is needed to reduce air pollution, protect public health and curb climate-harming emissions. But transforming the entire trucking industry is a challenging feat that will require the ...
Is Your Commute Harming Your Health?
Is Your Commute Harming Your Health?
Daily commutes via car have evolved into more than mere trips – they greatly influence both our mental and physical well-being. Research shows that relentless car journeys don’t just occupy our time, they significantly shape our mood and overall outlook ...
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