Sunday, March 11, 2018

Unlike Denmark, the USA will become antiqated and undesirable with cities lingering in the past.

American cities can participate in the UN Global Compact (click here) or each city can sign onto the Paris Agreement indepentently. There is a distinct disadvantage for USA cities to end their interest in the climate. Without a national program to guide the development of USA cities, there can be "hit and miss" efforts. By joining either the Paris Agreements or teh UN Global Compact a way forward is obvious.

 This is from the journal "Nature."

 "Six research priorities for cities and climate change" (click here)
27 February 2018




Cities must address climate change. (click here) More than half of the world’s population is urban, and cities emit 75% of all carbon dioxide from energy use. Meeting the target of the 2015 Paris climate agreement to keep warming well below 2° C above pre-industrial levels requires staying within a ‘carbon budget’ and emitting no more than around 800 gigatonnes of CO2 in total after 2017. Yet bringing the rest of the world up to the same infrastructure level as developed countries (those listed as Annex 1 to the Kyoto Protocol) by 2050 could take up to 350 gigatonnes of the remaining global carbon budget. Much of this growth will be in cities in the developing world (see ‘Urban development challenge’).

 Cities are increasingly feeling the effects of extreme weather. Many are located on floodplains, in dry areas or on coasts. In 2017, more than 1,000 people died and 45 million people lost homes, livelihoods and services when severe floods hit southeast Asian cities, including Dhaka in Bangladesh and Mumbai in India. California’s suburbs and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil have experienced floods and mudslides on the heels of drought, wildfires and heavy rains. Cape Town in South Africa has endured extreme drought since 2015. By 2030, millions of people and US$4 trillion of assets will be at risk from such events (see go.nature.com/2sbj4qh)....

 ...Science needs to have a stronger role in urban policy and practice. Next week in Edmonton, Canada, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and 9 global partners will bring together some 700 researchers, policymakers and practitioners from 80 countries for the IPCC Cities and Climate Change Science Conference (https://citiesipcc.org). Participants will establish a global research agenda that will inform the IPCC special report on cities — part of the panel’s seventh assessment cycle, which begins in 2023....
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