Abstract

Cities have a significant impact on climate change but are also potential saviours of the planet. The city consumes vast amounts of fossil fuels and other resources in buildings, transport, and heating and cooling, and produces large quantities of waste and pollution. Yet the city is a continuing spark of ingenuity and innovation with an inspiring capacity to create lower carbon infrastructure and living patterns, offering hope for a sustainable future. Here we canvass the scope for transforming the character of urban design, mobility, and consumption in favour of healthy and planet-friendly activity that could provide benchmarks for cities across the planet, given encouraging governance. It is a tough call, but in offering hope, an exciting one to answer.

Keywords: urban vulnerability, resources grab, climate-resilient cities, urban agriculture, low-carbon mobility, sustainable infrastructure

In sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds of all new city-dwellers currently move into informal settlements or slums, and half of them are expected to remain there in the long term. According to UN forecasts, Africa’s population could rise to a total of 4.4 billion people by 2100. If the current urbanisation trends were to continue in Africa, and, for example, 80 per cent of the people in Africa were to live in cities by 2100 – and 60 per cent of these in slums – this would mean about 2 billion people having to live in degrading city districts.