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With 70 percent of the world's people expected to live in cities by 2050, planning to make them liveable and sustainable is crucial, experts say
By Samuel Nota
The speed, scale, and complexity of urbanisation are unprecedented, and how we approach it will be fundamental to whether the world achieves environmentally sustainable development, experts said at the recent Planet Under Pressure conference in London.
The modern era of urbanisation since the Industrial Revolution over a century ago has seen the development of megacities around the world. As the world population increases to an estimated 9 billion by 2050, urban centres – particularly small and medium-sized cities - will see a population explosion, the experts said.
The United Nations predicts the total urban population in 2050 will reach 6.3 billion, up from 3.5 billion today, with 70 percent of the world’s people living in cities.
As people continue moving to urban jobs, in part in response to worsening climate change pressures, increased urbanisation is inevitable, but not inevitably bad.
Michail Fragkias of Arizona State University in the United States said that innovative design can change the way cities operate, and those designed for efficiency can be models for sustainability.
Potential ways to improve efficiency in cities include installing sensors that monitor power generation capacity and electricity demand, gathering better data from citizens and improving various sorts of infrastructure.
LEARNING FROM PAST MISTAKES
Importantly, developing urban centres will have the opportunity to learn from the costly environmental mistakes made by already developed cities, expert said.
Urban areas in the developing world “have a latecomer’s advantage in terms of knowledge, sustainable thinking, and technology,” said Shobhakar Dhakal, executive director of the Global Carbon Project in Tokyo.
Decisions being made now should be made for the long term, experts said. Some of the solutions proposed include better zoning and building standards, improving the quality of inner city education, investments in public infrastructure, and fostering demand for efficient lifestyles.
Urbanisation does not have to mean more emissions and worse public health, the experts emphasized – and urban planners, if they make the right decisions, can be sustainability trailblazers, setting a path for others to follow.
Samuel Nota is an AlertNet Climate intern.
