The Climate City

Martin Powell

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781119746270
• eBook ISBN:
  9781119746317
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

THE CLIMATE CITY

Provides professionals in finance, technology, and consulting with solutions for improving the quality of urban life under the changing climate

The Climate City provides cutting-edge approaches for developing resilient solutions to combat the effects of climate change in cities throughout the world. Linking finance and technology to policy and innovation, this highly practical resource outlines a global framework for mitigating and adapting to climate change and for effectively planning and delivering a low-carbon future.

This book addresses how cities can work effectively with each other to drive change, the importance of strong leadership and international cooperation, the role of innovative finance and technology to identify new economic opportunities, and more. Throughout the book, the authors address future trends such as the changing streetscape, connected infrastructure and eMobility, and autonomous vehicles, drones, and other emerging technologies. Designed to help all stakeholders build a pathway to a less resource-intensive future, The Climate City:

• Provides in-depth discussion of the technological, financial, and practical aspects of tackling climate change in urban environments
• Demonstrates why the global economy needs to transition to a low-carbon economy
• Describes the role of financial institutions and how they can allocate capital more efficiently
• Explains why and how challenges and priorities are different in the global north and south
• Illustrates how data can improve the ways cities use energy resources and operate transportation systems
• Discusses how citizen action can drive a new, more meaningful way of living in cities
• Features insights from political leaders such as the Mayor of Copenhagen, the Mayor of Los Angeles and the former Mayor of London and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Climate City is essential reading for city planners, policy makers, technologists, consultants, finance and business professionals, and general readers wanting to improve the cities in which they work and live.

1
The Ambitious City – Introduction

Cities run on a unique momentum. They combine a vision of the future with constant innovation. It is no mystery as to why our cities come to symbolize the best we can offer as nations. Ambition is what defines a city, the ability to look forward and the constant pushing of the boundaries of what is possible. It is clear that we need ambition, but ambition alone is problematic. All too often we are bound to empty leadership, PR stunts, and meaningless words that lead to unsubstantial policy. Short-term goals are ineffective and long-term outcomes are lost. Simply citing “a net-zero city” as a strategic goal is not enough.

So … how do we retain ambition but keep clarity?

Throughout this chapter, Peter Boyd will discuss this challenge and outline his plan for ambitious but accountable cities. He argues that the “clarity” we seek for the ambitious city is achieved through “connected” leadership both to the environment and the city it serves. Peter writes, “As faith in national governments and global institutions falters, it is in the city level of democracy and leadership that we can locate a stable point of leadership to embrace this level of responsibility.”

This need for connected leadership is not to be underestimated, especially as we move towards our ambitious (but possible) “Net-Zero” targets. Peter looks at what earns a city its “Net-Zero” status and considers how four powerful descriptors – Fully Scoped, Science-Based, Paris-Agreement-Compliant, Cumulative – bring clarity to the concept itself. Peter then goes beyond this, quite literally, in what he refers to as “Net Zero and Beyond”, as he outlines further steps we can take beyond the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so that cities become “climate positive” rather than solely aiming for “Net-Zero” status.

All leaders act and all leaders are defined by their actions. But in the case of the ambitious city, action alone is not enough in regards to any future leader. They must go “beyond” this. Meaningful, clear, clean action is the only option in the ambitious city.

1
The Ambitious City

Peter Boyd

For cities to truly lead on climate change – a just transition to “Net-Zero” and beyond – high ambition needs to be coupled with high clarity of vision and a multidimensional, connected-leadership approach with an appreciation and embrace of systems thinking.

Ambitious Citizens in Ambitious Cities

Cities have been magnets to ambition for centuries. From fairy tales to ancient Rome (Figure 1.1), to contemporary migration trends, and everything in between, people have come to the city to seek their fortune – to “be somebody”, to “make it” and make things happen.

Figure 1.1 A depiction of Ancient Rome, a concept shaping many cities that followed. (Source: ZU_09/Getty Images.)

If cities are to truly take the lead in combatting climate change, we need an ambitious city with purpose-driven city leaders to accelerate a just transition to a sustainable future. We need them to help define the city’s goals and for individual ambition to inform and feed into collective ambition for a city we all want to live in, and where we think our children and grandchildren will in turn want to stay or return to.

But alongside ambition we need clarity. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there,” said Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland (Figure 1.2). There are cities all over the world with a number of sustainability goals, but to truly take the lead on climate change we should reach and then surpass “Net-Zero” (capital letters to be explained) into carbon negative, eco-restorative territory – as soon as each city is able, and well before 2050.

Figure 1.2 If you don’t know where you are going any road will take you there. (Source: EllerslieArt/Adobe Stock.)

To achieve this necessary climate goal while managing all the other priorities of the complex modern city, we need leaders that are truly connected: to themselves; to the team around them; to their communities and stakeholders; and to an awareness and appreciation of the entire system they are trying to manage and change.

What could this look like? A city would have a bold, clear, co-created goal that the city leadership, community leaders, and citizens readily understand and support. A city’s climate action plan would target a fully scoped, science-based, Paris-Agreement-compliant, cumulative “Net-Zero” well before 2050; and it would do so in a way that also makes the city greener, more equitable, more resilient, smarter, friendlier, healthier, and all the other qualities to be examined in later chapters.

And just as Maya Angelou told us as individuals to “Be yourself, only better”, cities will have achieved this in a variety of complex, adaptive, ingenious ways – peculiar to their own unique assets and their own unique, ambitious citizens.

Cities: The Need for Ambition and Clarity

Cities have been hives of ambition since they were first created. Birthed by the ambitious, they have attracted like minds in search of their fortune, of significance, of life’s meaning, and much more. Today, we need these hives of ambition to assume leadership of the just transition to a sustainable world.

Thomas Berry, in The Great Work, describes these decisive decades in the context of a long multicentury arc as one when we have to work out how to become a benign force on the planet – with ourselves as fellow humans and with all creation. This is, in essence, the “Great Work” that lies before us. And as faith in national governments and global institutions falters, it is in the city level of democracy and leadership that we locate a stable point of leadership to embrace this level of responsibility.

Reaching the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement will require ambitious actions from all sectors and levels of our society, but especially in our cities. More than 55% of people already live in urban areas, and this is forecast to rise to 68% by mid-century.¹ Urban areas account for more than 60–70% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, consuming 66–78% of the world’s energy, while occupying less than 2% of the land.² Even as we decouple economic growth from emissions – already achieved by over twenty countries before – the sheer scale of the amount of people living in cities means that climate leadership by cities requires ambition and talent at city-scale as much as ever before in history.

But ambition on its own will not be enough. A mayor will always fall short when simply citing “a net-zero city” ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Authors Biographies
• Introduction
• 1 The Ambitious City – Introduction
• 2 The Civilized City – Introduction
• 3 The Emerging City – Introduction
• 4 The Sustainable City – Introduction
• 5 The Vocal City – Introduction
• 6 The Governed City – Introduction
• 7 The Decoupled City – Introduction
• 8 The Responsible City – Introduction
• 9 The Energized City – Introduction
• 10 The Agile City (Part I) – Introduction
• 11 The Agile City (Part II) – Introduction
• 12 The Habitable City (Part I) – Introduction
• 13 The Habitable City (Part II) – Introduction
• 14 The Resourceful City – Introduction
• 15 The Zero Waste City – Introduction
• 16 The Resilient City – Introduction
• 17 The Fragile City – Introduction
• 18 The Data City – Introduction
• 19 The Measured City – Introduction
• 20 The Smart City – Introduction
• 21 The Just City – Introduction
• 22 The Invested City – Introduction
• 23 The Financed City – Introduction
• 24 The Adapted City – Introduction
• 25 The Open City – Introduction
• 26 The Natural City – Introduction
• 27 The Climate-Resilient City – Introduction
• 28 The Green City – Introduction
• 29 The Powerful City – Introduction
• 30 Epilogue
• Index
• End User License Agreement