Why Cities are crucial for Climate Change and fixing it!
By: Tisura Gamage
Tags: Technology, Climate Change, Cities, Innovation, Density

*Cities consume 80% of the global energy supply and account for roughly an equal share of the global greenhouse gas emissions.

Cities are geographical nodes which concentrate wealth, people and productivity (Hoornweg, Freire, Lee, Bhada-Tata, & Yuen, 2011). Cities exist because they are economic agglomerations of talent, capital and labor that make possible production and trading at economies of scale and specialization of work. Cities are fundamental to how we organize our economy, create value and create employment. The emergence of a market economy and the industrial revolution paved the way for factory cities aided by many innovations in manufacturing and transportation. Manufacturing created demand for skilled craftsmen, managers and high energy consuming production processes. Higher density of resources agglomeration paved the way for dense transportation networks which included roads, canal ways and railroads. Housing for city inhabitants and their density in a geographical region made economic sense to provide common services such as electricity supply, water and gas for indoor heating, sanitation and other services essential for quality of life (O’Sullivan, Urban Economics, 2009). Although many cities in the United States have shifted away from manufacturing to reinvent themselves to be centers that service the creative and knowledge economy, many factors of agglomeration dynamics mentioned above have intensified rather than become obsolete. The creative economy attracts high paid talent and skill that continue to demand more and more luxury services from the cities they live in shifting the city administers to think about many cosmopolitan services to attract more talent and youth. While these factors act as a loop to increase demand for more and more focused energy consumption inside cities, cities and their density of talent, wealth and connection are our best hope of finding solution to mitigating and adopting to climate change.

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population is now urban. Economists believe this trend of urbanization is the defining phenomenon of this century. Most of the population in industrialized countries is urban. This is a trait shared by many countries in Latin America while many developing countries in others regions are following this path (Hoornweg, Freire, Lee, Bhada-Tata, & Yuen, 2011). Credible studies have found that cities consume 80% of the global energy supply and account for roughly an equal share of the global greenhouse gas emissions (UNEP, 2012) (UN-HABITAT, 2012). Roughly half this amount of GHGs come from burning fossil fuels for urban transportation and urban housing and buildings energy end-in use appliances are responsible for the other half (Williams, 2007). This simplifies the problem in a way that is manageable with the proper policies and technologies in place. Energy experts agree that electrification of end user services in transportation, buildings and industrial sectors as one of the most viable means to deep de-carbonization of the urban energy system and the economy. For this to work the electricity system will have to be decarbonized as well (National Renewable Energy Laboratory , 2017).

One of the founding objectives mentioned in the 1992 Article II of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to ensure stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that would prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. It also mandates that such stabilization “should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change… and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner” (United Nations , 1992 ). This objective in itself defines the two pathways to how the world and local communities can think about the problem of climate change. The first part refers to mitigation whereas allowing ecosystems to adapt natural to climate change refers to adaptation. Subsequent publication has included adapting human socioeconomic processes to withstand disruptions from a changing climate. Climate change mitigation are the efforts to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as well as enhancing sinks to greenhouse gases. Adaptation is defined as the “adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities” (IPCC, 2007). The fundamental difference to these efforts are that mitigation measures are global since all nations and communities exist in one common atmosphere whereas adaptation measures should be local depending on the different nature of vulnerabilities and exposure of different communities in different parts of the world. While developed nations/ cities and more recently China and India are the main contributors to climate change, developing nations suffer the most from the impact of climate change.

Cities are naturally vulnerable to climate disasters and increased risk of these occurrences because of the density of activities. They are concentrated centers of people, assets, and economic activity (Baker, 2012). In the developing world this vulnerability is more so because of urban informality and exclusionary policies that some cities have pursued in urban. Many incoming migrants to cities have sought shelter in favelas or informal housing. Most of the time these informal housing and urban poor communities spring up in sub optimal land which may have been demarcated by city authorities as unfit for human settlement because of low lying flood prone areas or bad state of soil conditions or poor access to sanitation and other services. In such a context, an increased occurrence and increased severity of natural disasters in the form of urban flooding, hurricanes or sea level rise can mean disastrous to the urban poor living in these communities. In New York city mayor Bill de Blasio speaks of the step his administration has taken to ensure safety of poor urban communities living in Manhattan region to prevent storm surges during hurricanes and long terms sea level rise. Even New York city becomes vulnerable since it is a coastal city. Kelley (2014) analyses the trends and roots of the Syrian civil war and concludes the relation between long term climate disasters in the fertile crescent and poor management of the migration and youth to the cities and urban centers from rural farming communities in Syria (Kelley, 2014).

In the recent weeks in 2017 the world has seen multiple 500/ 100 year storms and hurricanes closer to the continental United States. The hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria affected large areas in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. City infrastructure, water, sanitation and electricity delivery services were destroyed in a matter of minutes. The difference in responses between Florida, or Texas and the response in Puerto Rico was not only the poor the state of infrastructure preparedness, but also the poor state of rapid response and disaster preparedness. A major factor in being prepared for disasters is advanced planning and having a trained rapid response team. Generally, a storm situation such as hurricane Maria will increase competition for resources. Thus it is essential to plan ahead and include securing shelter, food, first aid, shower and toilet facilities and other essential facilities for crew who will be working around the clock for days (EEI, 2014). This is why accountable and transparent governance as well as planning ahead is important for cities. This was also a good example where cities and city utilities pooled resources and provided mutual assistance were able to respond rapidly where isolated cities such as San Juan, Puerto Rico could not. Higher awareness of climate disasters and consequences from climate refuges and political instability is bound to bring countries together, including the United States to share knowledge and voluntarily to agree to curb emission. Its interested to see that many cities and mayor in the U.S. have voluntarily declared that they will standby the Paris Climate Change agreement.

Walter Vergara from the World Resources Institute is positive that many cities are taking innovative leadership for climate change mitigation. LAC cities such as Curitiba implemented the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system for the first time and has gained popularity across the world because of its relatively short costs and short periods of construction relatively to rail transit. Bio fuels research is also where Brazil is a leading clean energy innovation in the world. LAC region is also innovating in niche areas such as electric mass transport where the rest of world has not progressed much. In many ways the LAC region has a comparative advantage in cleaner transportation modes.

In conclusion, cities are part pf the problem as well as an integral part of the solution to climate change. Cities are a hot bed of talent innovation and capital. Cities and their density makes economic scale and scope possible for new clean energy innovation to be commercialized and tested out in a profitable manner. Cities are also dynamic hubs of knowledge and association such as the C40 that have come together to be a force for sharing adaptation and mitigation knowledge with the rest of the world and the developing world. There is no doubt that cities will be agents leading the force against climate change now and in the future.