SOURCE: Sustainable Development

CITIES AND SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
Smart gets
Smarter
Smart city concepts can go beyond their original remit and help create incubatory
environments that encourage and promote innovative sustainability at grassroots levels,
reports Professor Martin Charter, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Design
Cities are major hotbeds of environmental,
social and economic problems, as we well
know; but they can also be catalysts for the
development of new sustainable solutions.
Cities are important, and are predicted to
become even more important: 70 per cent of
the global population will be located in cities
by 2050, compared to 50 per cent at present
(according to UN World Urbanisation
Prospects); at present, 60 per cent of global
GDP is from 600 cities (says consulting firm
McKinsey); and cities currently account for
70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions
(according to UN Habitat).
The expanding city populations will
mean growing environmental impacts and
challenges, as well as, potential opportunities
related to the development of more
sustainable solutions for energy, water,
and food production/storage/distribution,
transportation, housing and waste (or
resource) management.
What, however, will the increase in
urbanisation mean for regions, towns,
villages and rural areas? What will be the
future role and influence of regional and
provincial governments (and other local
stakeholders) as populations migrate to
cities? And what will be the implications for
more sustainable economic development?
‘Green Growth’
Post-2008, the concept of ‘green growth’
has gained international support among
policy makers as a means of reconciling
the ongoing need for economic growth set
within environmental limits. Reports in
the late 2000s from the World Economic
Forum (WEF), United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), and the Organisation
of Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) helped to shape the development
of the ‘green economy’ and ‘green growth’
policy agendas. This thinking has now
filtered down into a range of national,
regional, and city government initiatives as
illustrated in the recent report by the Global
Green Growth Institute.
To facilitate discussion, the Danish
government have established and host the
3GF (Global Green Growth Forum), an
annual gathering of policy makers, CEOs,
and other key decision-makers that debates
the evolving ‘green growth’ agenda while
acting as a platform for the development of
national and international public-private
partnership projects.
A number of cities are engaging in and
taking leadership on the ‘green growth’
agenda and are embracing the associated
change. For example, Copenhagen is the
2014 European Green capital, was voted
number one in the European green city
index, and hosts the 3GF.
Climate change returns
Cities face major climate change impacts
and will increasingly need to implement
climate change mitigation and adaptation
strategies. In 2013, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported
that the evidence for global climate change
is unequivocal, and there are likely to
be an increased number of extreme and
unpredictable weather events.
Climate change is moving back into the
spotlight. In September 2014, there were
demonstrations in New York and London
over the need for action over climate
change in parallel to United Nations
Climate Change Summit in New York.
Coupled to this, the Hollywood movie
actor and environmental activist, Leonardo
DiCaprio, was appointed the United Nations
Messenger of Peace, and delivered a keynote
speech on the climate change imperative as
part of a strategy of raising the media profile
in advance of the 2015 United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) in Paris.
November 2015 will be a pivotal date in
the climate change agenda as UNFCCC will
aim to decide on a legally-binding agreement
on greenhouse gas emission targets linked
to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. City leaders are
likely to play a prominent role in discussions
drawing on lessons from initiatives such as
C40 and the Mayors Covenant that have
developed city-based learning networks
focused on reducing carbon emissions and
developing low-carbon innovation.
Related challenges
Alongside climate change, cities need to
tackle many other environmental challenges
– such as access to water and food, and
health issues associated with air and water
pollution. For example, over the last 12
months, Beijing has faced significant air
pollution problems, where on a significant
number of days, emissions have far-exceeded
World Health Organisation (WHO) safety
levels.
While not achieving the public visibility of
climate change, there is growing recognition
among policy makers, business, civil
society, and a number of innovative cities,
of the need to move away from the linear
‘take-make-waste’ economy, to a Circular
Economy model that aims to stimulate
improved resource efficiency and innovation
through, for example, re-manufacturing,
re-conditioning, refurbishment, and repair –
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