Cities and Climate Change

Climate Policy, Economic Resilience and Urban Sustainability

Zaheer Allam, David Jones, Meelan Thondoo

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030407261
• eBook ISBN: 9783030407278
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environment & Energy Policy
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book explores climate change responsiveness policies for cities and discusses why they have been slow to gain traction despite having been on the international agenda for the last 30 years. The contributing role of cities in accentuating the effects of climate change is increasingly demonstrated in the literature, underscoring the unsustainable models on which urban life has been made to thrive. As these issues become increasingly apparent, there are global calls to adopt more sustainable and equitable models, however doing so will mean the disruption of economies that have historically relied upon pollution-generating industries. In order to address these issues the authors examine them from a cross-disciplinary perspective, bringing in regional, local and urban standpoints to subsequently propose an alternative short-term economic model that could accelerate the adoption of climate change mitigation infrastructures and urban sustainability in urban areas.
This book will be of particular value to scholars and students alike in the field of urbanism, sustainability and resilience, as well as practitioners looking at avenues for economically incentivizing sustainable development in various geographical context.

© The Author(s) 2020

Z. Allam et al.Cities and Climate ChangePalgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societieshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40727-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Urban Resilience and Climate Change

Zaheer Allam¹ , David Jones² and Meelan Thondoo³

(1)

Live + Smart Research Lab, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

(2)

School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

(3)

Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain

Zaheer Allam

Abstract

As the world witnesses a significant demographic boom, the impacts of climate change are getting more pronounced and affecting the livelihoods of people as well as urban ecosystems from climatic, health, environmental and economic standpoints. The role of cities is apparent in this process. Cities are now shown to contribute to urban, national and regional economics driving different dimensions of world development. Today, cities are designed to respond to the needs of contemporary urban economics, and there is an increasing literature calling for new concepts aligned with more sustainable outcomes. However, the implementation of new concepts will mean restructuring a number of vital urban infrastructures, which comes at a cost. Even though the need for those is now acknowledged, there is no consensus as to what models are readily available to support this change.

Keywords

Urban resilienceClimate changeSustainabilityCitiesEconomicsLiveability and health

End Abstract

Introduction

From the nineteenth century, the world’s population has maintained a steady exponential growth. Today, as humans we comprise 7.6 million residents on this planet, and by 2050 it is projected that this will continue to rise to an estimated 9.9 billion people (United Nations, 2017). What is surprising about this increase in population is that a majority of the world’s population is opting to live in urban centres; thus, fuelling the global phenomenon of urbanization. From records, of the 7.6 billion people, 54% are currently living in urbanized areas and with every day, more are migrating or being born in cities. Thus, it is projected that by 2050 that 68% of the world population will be living in cities (Population Reference Bureau, 2018). The result of this trend is the expansion and unfettered sprawl of cities, leading to the consumption of green and agriculturally productive spaces at the peripheries of urban areas that are engulfed in seas of concrete, tin and plastic. Unfortunately, such extensions of urban boundaries are compromising land reserves that seek to protect resources and assets like forests, parks, waterfronts, coastlines and green spaces amongst others that provide the ‘green lungs’ for these cities and contributing oxygen to cleanse cities; improving human and animal well-being (Allam, 2012, 2017; Allam, Dhunny, Siew, & Jones, 2018).

Another intriguing consequence of this increasing population and high rate of urbanization is the parallel demand for a myriad of services such as energy, health services, consumer goods, infrastructural development, housing to service urbanization and human needs (Corey, Wilson, & Fan, 2015; Lang, 2018; Zhu, 2017). Indeed, the world is now characterized by a highly consumerist population that is exerting unprecedented pressure upon available resources. This is perhaps well represented in the desolating images of the overexploitation of forests (Figs. 1.1 and 1.2).

Fig. 1.1

Deforestation

(Image by Dave Herring)

Fig. 1.2

Dense forest in Sao Paolo

(Image by Sergio Souza)

The most unfortunate outcome of these patterns is that our lifestyle and global trends are accelerating the decline of environmental sustainability and impacting upon the liveability of urban areas, more so with the advent and consequences of climate change. And, without any doubt, climate change is now documented as one of the biggest threats of this century to planet Earth and its residents, with many impacts being felt in most cities globally, irrespective of their nation’s development status (Mgbemene, Nnaji, & Nwozor, 2016; OECD, 2014; Rezai, Taylor, & Foley, 2018). These consequences include unprecedented flooding (Arnone, Pumo, Francipane, Loggia, & Noto, 2018; Miller & Hutchins, 2017), extreme increases and drops in temperatures, high precipitation levels and significant erratic climatic incidents, emergence and increase of new traits of diseases (Ogden, 2018) and prolonged droughts and dry spells amongst others (Ghebrezgabher, Yang, & Yang, 2016). Surprisingly, these events are also being felt and affecting remote areas that do not boast high urbanization rates or engage in high pollution-intensive activities which were thought to be safe from certain forms of weather disasters. A case in point is the case of cyclones Kenneth and Idai that hit countries such as Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe on 4–21 March 2019 affecting numerous people and leaving behind trails of massive destruction of in excess of $2.2 billion (2019 USD) (Onishi & Moyo, 2019). Such cyclone incidents had historically not been reported in this region.

In cities, most of which are now densely populated (Figs. 1.3 and 1.4), the consequences of climate change on vital urban infrastructures have also been reported to cause immeasurable havoc and chaos (Allam, 2019a, 2019b, 2020e, 2020f, 2020g; Allam & Jones, 2018, 2019).

Fig. 1.3

Densely populated city of Sofia in Bulgaria

(Image by Georgi Kalaydzhiev)

Fig. 1.4

City of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

(Image by Ishan @seefromthesky)

Effects include claiming lives of millions and negatively affecting their livelihoods and impacting upon entire urban economies (UN-Habitat, 2015; World Bank, 2010). For instance, such destructive events like hurricanes Katrina (2005), Harvey (2017), Jebi (2018) and Idai (2019), and the numerous wildfires that are being experienced in different countries have had severe impacts on urban infrastructures (BBC News, 2018). Roads, bridges, power plants and distribution lines, water supply systems and airports have been reported destroyed, eroded, flooded and laid waste leaving substantial parts irrevocably damaged. For instance, in 2017, storms, hurricanes and cyclones alone were responsible for an accumulated destruction amounting to over $300 billion in the Atlantic Basin, and the displacement of millions of people with over 3500 reported deaths (NOAA, 2018, 2019).

The reality of such destruction and loss is that climate change is now perceived to be a global threat sparking concerted policy and action efforts from global major players like governments, international organizations, institutions and diverse stakeholders to propose urgent mitigation strategies (Condon, Cavens, & Miller, 2009). In particular, in cities, there are concerted citizenry calls for revising urban planning models and policies to better accommodate practices and projects that promote increased resilience against climate change (Mi et al., 2019). However, the foundational operating processes of urban life are being questioned as cities are major contributors of climate change. To a larger extent, one has to agree with the critics since the current urban planning models are not ecologically inclined and not adapted to the current needs (Apreda, D’Ambrosio, & Di Martino, 2019), in their capacity in accommodation and successfully guiding responses to current issues including increasing urban population and consumption behaviours to list a few. Our consumption, especially of energy from non-renewable sources, has been identified as possessing a high propensity to increase emissions thereby negatively accentuating climate change impacts. In addition, demand for resources like foodstuffs, water and building materials exacerbated by increasing urban populations also plays a key role in climate change because of their extraction and fabrication needs prompt unhealthy practices including wholesale vegetation clearance and firing of more land to facilitate agricultural productivity.

Such activities lead to overexploitation of resources like water to irrigate agricultural lands, excessive soil erosion and transformations of biodiversities into monocultures to reputedly produce enough food supply to satisfy our insatiable urban populations (Wiebe, Robinson, & Cattaneo, 2019...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Urban Resilience and Climate Change
• 2. Decarbonization and Urban Sustainability
• 3. Climate Change Mitigation and Urban Liveability
• 4. Economically Incentivizing Urban Sustainability and Resilience
• 5. Achieving Urban Resilience Within the Capitalist Movement
• Back Matter