Abstract
Since at least 2008, cities have hosted half or more of the earth’s human beings, a share that continues to grow. Cities also account for more than 80 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and about 70 percent of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. If present trends continue, urban populations are expected to increase to 6 billion by 2045, at which point two-thirds of all people will live in urban environments. These figures suggest that while cities tend to be associated with higher per capita wealth than rural communities, they also account for higher per capita greenhouse gas emissions. In any comprehensive attempt to address climate change, therefore, cities and their inhabitants must play a vigorous and leading role.
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Notes
- 1.
World Bank, “Urban Development: Overview,” www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/overview, viewed December 17, 2015.
- 2.
Table 6–1 from Daniel Hoornweg, Lorraine Sugar, and Claudia Lorena Trejos Gómez, “Cities and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Moving Forward,” Environment and Urbanization 23, no. 1 (2011): 207–27; Christopher Kennedy et al., “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities,” Environmental Science & Technology 43, no. 19 (2009): 7,297–7,302.
- 3.
Felix Creutzig et al., “Global Typology of Urban Energy Use and Potentials for an Urbanization Mitigation Wedge,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 20 (2015): 6,283–88.
- 4.
C. A. Kennedy, N. Ibrahim, and D. Hoornweg, “Low-Carbon Infrastructure Strategies for Cities,” Nature Climate Change 4 (2014): 343–46.
- 5.
For varying economic and emissions profiles of different cities, see Chris Sall and Jigar V. Shah, The Role of Industry in Forging Green Cities (Washington, DC: Institute for Industrial Productivity, March 2015); for discussions of other distinguishing city characteristics, see also Christopher A. Kennedy et al., “Energy and Material Flows of Megacities,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 19 (2015): 5,985–90, and Kennedy, Ibrahim, and Hoornweg, “Low-carbon Infrastructure Strategies for Cities.”
- 6.
C40 Cities and Arup, Climate Action in Megacities. C40 Cities Baseline and Opportunities. Volume 2.0 (London: February 2014).
- 7.
Ibid
- 8.
Ibid
- 9.
Christopher Kennedy et al., “Methodology for Inventorying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities,” Energy Policy 38, no. 9 (2009): 4,828–37; STAR Communities, “The Rating System,” www.starcommunities.org/rating-system; World Resources Institute (WRI), C40 Cities, and ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability, Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories: Executive Summary (Washington, DC: WRI, 2014).
- 10.
World Bank, “Planning and Financing Low-Carbon, Livable Cities,” September 26, 2013, www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/09/25/planning-financing-low-carbon-cities; C40 Cities and Arup, Climate Action in Megacities.
- 11.
Creutzig et al., “Global Typology of Urban Energy Use and Potentials for an Urbanization Mitigation Wedge.”
- 12.
Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, “Chapter 2: Cities,” in Better Growth, Better Climate. The New Climate Economy Report (Washington, DC: WRI, 2014); Creutzig et al., “Global Typology of Urban Energy Use and Potentials for an Urbanization Mitigation Wedge.”
- 13.
Lorraine Sugar and Christopher Kennedy, “A Low-Carbon Infrastructure Plan for Toronto, Canada,” Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering 40, no. 2 (2013): 86–96.
- 14.
Creutzig et al., “Global Typology of Urban Energy Use and Potentials for an Urbanization Mitigation Wedge.”
- 15.
Scott Nyquist, ”Peering into Energy’s Crystal Ball,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2015; Per-Anders Enkvist et al., “A Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas Reduction,” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2007. Currency exchange reflects rate of €1 = $1.0836.
- 16.
Creutzig et al., “Global Typology of Urban Energy Use and Potentials for an Urbanization Mitigation Wedge”; David Banister, “Cities, Mobility, and Climate Change,” Journal of Transport Geography 19, no. 6 (2011): 1,538–46.
- 17.
Ibid
- 18.
Xuemei Bai, “Emerging Patterns of Urban Sustainability in Asia,” The Bridge on Urban Sustainability 41, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 35–42; Xuemei Bai et al., “Enabling Sustainability Transitions in Asia: The Importance of Vertical and Horizontal Linkages,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 76, no. 2 (2009): 255–66.
- 19.
Gordon McGranahan, Deborah Balk, and Bridget Anderson, “The Rising Tide: Assessing the Risks of Climate Change and Human Settlements in Low-Elevation Coastal Zones,” Environment & Urbanization 19, no. 1 (2007): 17–37.
- 20.
Vaclav Smil, Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010).
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Prugh, T., Renner, M. (2016). Cities and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Scope of the Challenge. In: State of the World. State of the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-756-8_6
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