If countries and nations are failing short in acting on climate, big cities around the world are increasingly acting on these matters. This has been particularly apparent in the New York summit last month.
Indeed, hope came from C40 Cities, a group of over 65 cities accounting for over 18 percent of global GDP and 8 percent of the human population. Among these cities are Paris, New York, Sidney, Buenos Aires or Delhi.
C40 cities are pledging to push forward low carbon technologies and actions such as :
- increase the importance of public transportation as well as cycling and walking ;
- plant trees and change the way waste is collected ( recycling for example ) ;
- boost energy efficiency and renewables all around.
This initiative is particularly important as most of the Human population lives nowadays in cities. Grist reports notably that a member of the C40 group – Houston, Texas, USA – has decreased its emissions by a massive amount of 32 percent since 2007. The Stockholm Environment Institute notes that :
(U)rban actions could decrease global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 3.7 Gt CO2e below what national actions are currently on track to achieve in 2030, and by 8.0 Gt CO2e in 2050.
Therefore, cities are positioned to make meaningful contributions towards more aggressive national targets to reduce emissions. This can be accomplished because mayors have strong influence over key policies that influence emissions, such as building energy standards, urban planning, and public transportation.
But the actions of nations and cities won’t be enough to curb enough greenhouse gases emissions. And that’s were some responsible businesses step in. You will find the rest of this article next week so stay tuned.