Climate Change: Cities should shape our future

By Brian Atuheire Batenda

On October 6, 2018, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report in support of a global response to keep global warming to less than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, showing that we are at a serious tipping point in the earth's capacity to absorb additional heat.

The report indicates that we must reduce our GHG emissions by 45% before 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2075. Widely reported in popular media, the Summary for Policymakers provided a clear warning and therefore the world knows we need to act fast and decisively on these effects.

In effect those reading the report or discussing it look at the whole universe (which is important) but for us to have the effects arrested and have quicker and tangible results we should focus on cities; this is because cities are the global centres of communication, commerce and culture. They are also a significant, and growing, source of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Therefore if we are to turn the tide against climate change, cities must lead the way. Compact and efficient cities can dramatically reduce emissions and will drive innovation and sustained economic growth mostly for third world. Pursuing strategies and actions that reduce emissions by developing greener energy supplies and supporting more sustainable lifestyles should be the next path if we to have net zero emissions by 2075. We also need to make a rapid and far reaching transition in energy, land, urban and infrastructure and industrial systems to avoid surpassing the 1.5ºC increase.

This could be through a consumption based approach that captures direct and lifecycle GHG emissions of goods and services including those from raw materials, manufacture distribution, retail and disposal and allocates GHG emissions to the final consumers of those goods and services, rather than to the original producers of those GHG emissions.

Cities could also pursue broad community scale strategies focusing on land use, energy used in the building sector, transportation, infrastructure (concreting and paving) and embodied emissions to solve the climate change problems.

The patterns in which cities are built contribute to their GHG emissions therefore compact, connected and concentric walkable cities could enable other reduction strategies. The more they easily provide transportation options, more efficient infrastructure and building types that use less energy used the lesser the Emissions.

The other area is building and infrastructure for they have a great contribution to emissions. These are from the energy required to construct them, including that consumed to ship materials and equipment to the building site. Buildings that use locally sourced materials, as well as materials that do not require a lot of energy to manufacture and can be recycled or reused, could lower the emissions. The construction of Green infrastructure, such as green

parks could reduce emissions compared to traditional concrete infrastructure and also act as carbon sinks.

Incorporating more energy-efficient technology into buildings and using locally developed renewable energy could also dramatically reduce urban greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to incorporating new active technologies, better passive strategies including deliberate solar orientation, thermal insulation and ventilation could also improve building energy performance.

Cities are therefore required to define their own pathways to mitigate their GHG emissions by reducing the demand for energy, develop greener energy supplies, and support more sustainable lifestyles in this timeframe than ever if we to achieve and make the earth liveable.

The second highest source of global urban GHG emissions is from the transportation sector and reducing vehicle miles travelled, improving vehicle technologies and switching to cleaner burning fuels will be required more than ever. Well connected and comfortable pedestrian systems could also enable intermodal transportation systems providing mobility options for residents reducing traffic and emissions.

Based on our current efforts, these seem like audacious goals. However, not meeting them means we can expect continued increase in extreme weather events and coastal flooding, impacts on food insecurity and loss of biodiversity and unique ecosystems that support people. So it will require rethinking the way we live, work and travel around the world's cities, which account for about 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions to defeat these threats.

Writer is the director policy and research at African Initiative on Food Security and Environment