Cities and Climate Change
Cities house half of the world's population, use 80% of the world's resources, and are thus a significant game-changer when it comes to climate change. Cities have a special responsibility to cut greenhouse gas emissions: not only are they primary agents of climate change by burning most of the world’s fossil fuels, they are also its primary victims and are uniquely vulnerable to impacts like flooding and heat waves. It is clear that sustainable development requires sustainable urban development.
Expert Commission
- © Amanda Peterson
The Expert Commission on Cities and Climate Change is a co-operation between HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) and the World Future Council.
Our aims
To steer public awareness towards the responsibilities of cities in the age of climate change, identify the main obstacles to progress, and facilitate the exchange of knowledge.
To encourage the widespread implementation at local, regional, national and international levels of effective policies that accelerate regenerative urban development worldwide.
Our work
The Commission advises city authorities and governments worldwide. Specifically, we analyse existing regenerative urban development initiatives, identify 'best policies', and disseminate these policies to policy-makers wordwide to encourage their widespread adoption.
Publications
Regenerative Cities
October 2010
Regenerative cities means one thing: comprehensive political, financial and technological strategies for an environmentally enhancing, restorative relationship between cities and the ecosystems from which they draw resources for their sustenance. Introducing the concepts of 'Agropolis', 'Petropolis' and 'Ecopolis', this brochure explains how such a healthy relationship can be built. Download here
100% Renewable Energy - and Beyond - for Cities
March 2010
"100% renewable" means zero fossil or nuclear fuel content in operational or embodied energy, in stationary use or in transport. "And beyond" means improvements in the efficiency of urban energy use. This brochure sketches out the options and the processes that have started to transform urban energy systems and that will power our cities in the very near future. Download here
Heading for 100% Renewable Urban Transport
September 2009
The transition to 100% renewable energy in transportation crucially requires an increase in the energy efficiency of vehicles as well as a fundamental reduction in transport activity. This brochure gives policy recommendations for 100% renewable urban transport. Download here
Our concrete policy recommendations can also be found in our policy toolkit FuturePolicy.org
Members
- Click for full list of members
Commission members are experts in the field of sustainable urban development, including architects, city planners, and representatives from UN Habitat and world leading planning company ARUP. The Commission holds two meetings per year, at which members define themes on which reports written by themselves or by specially invited experts are commissioned.
Our vision: Regenerative cities
In recent years there has been a proliferation of urban regeneration initiviaties focused on the health and well-being of urban citizens. The concept of regenerative cities goes further: it seeks to create a restorative relationship between cities, their local hinterland and beyond. This means harnessing new opportunities in finance, technology, policy and business practice.
- From linear to circular metabolism
Nature has a circular zero-waste metabolism whereby every output by an organism is reused as an input to replenish the environment. It thus reaches beyond sustainability and towards regeneration. In contrast, most modern cities function in a linear manner in which resources flow through the urban system without concern about their origin or the destination of their waste.
The challenge today is to find ways of guiding cities towards becoming regenerative without increasing costs to financially strapped city administrations.
