Cities are the engines of growth for an economy. In developed economies, most of the population is concentrated in and around mega cities as urban habitats are perceived to be good for business and are more productive. The degree of urbanisation of a country is a function of its stage of economic progress. The USA is 80 percent urbanised and India at around 40 percent presently, is witnessing rapid wave of urbanisation. Large migration of people to cities is expected over next few decades in case of emerging economies, including India, as their GDP grows, putting further pressure for expansion of housing, electricity, water, housing, transport and waste management. Our way of development and progress has involved deforestation in an unprecedented scale and also encroachment into natural habitats of other species thus destroying biodiversity and gradually pushing us to disaster. The key driver, the Industrial Revolution, not only changed man’s way of living, but also gave a turbo push to activities that lead to global warming and ecological imbalance.
With high greenhouse gas emissions, huge volume of industrial waste and deteriorating air quality, cities are becoming unsuitable for healthy living, their inadequate and crumbling infrastructure are not helping either. Although cities cover only 3% of the world’s land, they account for 60-80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions. Many cities like New York, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Dhaka etc. bear a direct threat of being submerged, and not in a very distant future, due to rising sea levels if global temperatures continue to rise. The accompanying devastation can result in large scale displacement and reverse migration of environmental refugees that shall need rehabilitation and resettlement, the cost and pain of which would be beyond tolerable limits.
With such a dystopian world glaring at us, do we have any hope? Maybe yes. With the help of rapid development in technology and collaboration across communities and countries, while being sensitive to their economic challenges, we can slowdown global warming to great extent, if not reverse it totally. Switching to clean energy tops the ‘to do’ list everywhere for stopping climate change. Interestingly, wind power and solar power have been growing at a very impressive rate, while simultaneously dropping in price and showing better performance. In equatorial countries, where access to electricity was a challenge, people have leapfrogged to solar energy, which is also the cheapest form of available energy. Fossil fuel backed power is rapidly being replaced by solar. Progressively, the per unit solar power cost has declined considerably in a decade. The issue of storage is also getting addressed at a rapid pace as a number of options are being made available.
Transportation is another challenge that accounts for a large part of the budget of countries. Cars, trucks, trains, planes etc. are responsible for around 20 percent of greenhouse gases. Regulators are pushing auto industry to migrate to electric vehicles. Almost every automobile company across the globe have started producing electric vehicles now. The energy and transportation issue of cities are being addressed seriously and are expected to yield significant results within a decade.
UN’s SDG 11 aims at making cities inclusive, sustainable and climate resilient to improve the quality of life. One study estimates that $4.5 trillion is required to achieve India’s goal of urban sustainability and renewable energy by 2040. But unless people imbibe climate consciousness in daily living, regulations, technology capital investments shall struggle to achieve their net zero objectives. Global climate forums can give direction and support, but collaboration from communities is what will take the climate movement forward.
Both developed and emerging countries need to cooperate and find ways to build trust while keeping in view their per capita carbon foot print and economic challenges. The truth is that effects of climate change are global. And we shall have to suffer our collective karma. A piecemeal approach is not going to be enough. Exponential technologies along with cooperation across communities with a Vasudhev Kutumbakam approach, could give us hope for a better and climate conscious living in a Climate Smart City.
By Bisweswar Pattnaik
The article was written for Delhi Management Association newsletter on climate change, G20 communique.