Push to decarbonize cities after Paris talks

Agarwala, Matthew

doi:10.1038/528193a

Correspondence
Published: 09 December 2015

Climate policy

Push to decarbonize cities after Paris talks

Matthew Agarwala¹^na1

Nature volume 528, page 193 (2015)Cite this article

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As the United Nations climate summit in Paris draws to a close, we suggest that cities should be a focus of action against climate change (see also D. G. Victor and J. P. Leape Nature 527, 439–441; 2015). Covering just 3% of Earth's surface but housing more than half of its population, they account for 70% of global energy demands.

Cities are already ahead of nations on climate policy. Initiatives such as C40 Cities (www.c40.org) and the World Mayors Council on Climate Change (go.nature.com/yyqjre) help urban centres to integrate climate objectives into current policy and long-term planning. The Cities for Climate Protection campaign run by the global cities network ICLEI, for example, has prevented emissions equivalent to some 54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from more than 1,000 cities (see www.iclei.org).

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Matthew Agarwala: ^*On behalf of 7 correspondents (see Supplementary information for full list).

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London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Matthew Agarwala

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Matthew Agarwala
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Correspondence to Matthew Agarwala.

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Agarwala, M. Push to decarbonize cities after Paris talks. Nature 528, 193 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/528193a

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Published: 09 December 2015
Issue date: 10 December 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/528193a

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Geoff Beacon 10 December 2015, 08:55

The importance of embodied carbon in construction has only recently been appreciated
(Embodied carbon recognised at last.
If we expand cities using current construction techniques, then the buildings and infrastructure will generate about 100 tonnes CO2e per extra city dweller. That's climate disaster.
(The carbon cost of achieving low carbon life styles
The ICLEI "Declaration to the Ministers at COP21" is full of buzz words that I have been reading for decades: INSPIRE, EXPAND, INTENSIFY, DEEPEN, CONNECT, INCLUDE, ENGAGE & etc. It seems high on encouragement but short on explaining what sort of lifestyles will fit within necessary carbon budgets... Prototype urban developments are needed that can show it is possible to live within these budgets. ("Notes on the future of cities": http://www.brusselsblog.co....