As climate change threatens our planet, transforming our cities to be greener and more sustainable is urgently needed. By designing urban areas with the environment and future generations in mind, we can address social, economic and environmental issues simultaneously. Extremely hot temperatures have strained global biodiversity over the past few years. As the current generation, we need to do something for the sake of the future generations. With the recent COP26 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, world leaders came together to plan on the way forward to save our planet. With political will and public support, green cities present an opportunity to reverse global warming impacts and ensure a livable future.
Why Does the Green City carry so much Potential?
Green Cities are the answer to most problems in our urban areas. Green cities have various components such as using renewable energy such as solar, wind, tide and hydro power. Moving to renewable sources like solar, wind and hydropower can drastically cut carbon emissions. “Renewables could supply over one third of global power by 2025,” reports the International Energy Agency. Copenhagen, the city with the largest district heating network is actually looking at transitioning to 100% carbon neutral sources as close as 2025. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk says, “Long-term renewable energy will actually be the cheapest form of energy.”
Prioritizing Walkability and Public Transport
Green Cities understand the concept of walkability. The use of motorized transport has also affected our environment due to emission of gases such as carbon dioxide. If cities could invest more on walkability and adequate space for walking, then congestion and emissions could reduce a great deal. Cities need to reduce the number of cars on roads and embrace the fact that NMT is the best option. Using NMT will also ensure that the running of activities is smooth and will help reduce the hustle.
Looking at cities like Nairobi, it’s very difficult to walk in town because it’s full of buses and private vehicles. The reason why the public opt for private transport is because of the poor services in public transportation. 80% of the people use public transport and this calls for better and quality services to reduce the need for private transport. Apart from walking, cycling could also be used to reduce the use of motorized transport and have positive health impacts on the public.
In Bogota, Colombia, a weekly “Ciclovía” event closes over 75 miles of roads for cyclists and pedestrians. This inspired over 1000 similar programs globally and improved citizens’ health. With proper infrastructure like bike lanes, public transport reliability can be increased and dependency on cars reduced.
Green cities also put a close proximity of social amenities to the public. For sustainable living, planning guidelines should be strictly followed to ensure that the public have adequate and quality social amenities. Neighborhood planning is one of the commonly used techniques which has been used in city planning. A neighborhood serves a population of about 5000 people and should be provided with schools, health facilities, entertainment facilities, banking facilities, security, quality education facilities, adequate housing, proper waste management, quality water and other necessities. This provisions will ensure sustainable living and high quality of life.
Green Spaces and Sustainable Development
Parks and trees are vital to curb urban heat and pollution. The cooling effect of trees reduces the surface temperature of European cities in the summer by up to 12°C in some regions. Cities should also provide for green open spaces which include parks, grass, trees, flowers, gardens etc., and other general vegetation. There is need to be strict implementation of policy which regulate the use of land as implementation of this is the most neglected part.
Cities need to come up with resilient solutions to solve the impacts of growing urbanization as the population in cities is growing rapidly. We have a narrow window to make things rights or else there will be irreversible effects in the near future. Cities need to be low carbon areas and this will only change if we shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, encourage non-motorized transport, invest in proper waste disposal and use other smart solutions to keep waste in cities at bay.
Stakeholder involvement is also very critical in the making of this a reality. This ranges from the Government, the public, civil society, business people, architects, planners, policy makers, engineers, surveyors, and other related disciplines. Having an inclusive plan will make us own our plans and actually help in intensive implementation.
Urban Planning is the key recommendation in changing our cities for the sake of our future generations. We should have passive techniques and ideas to cool our cities. With nature-based design and policy enforcement, development can harmonize with the environment instead of degrading it.
The Lowdown
It is up to us to take an individual responsibility in changing our cities for the sake of our future generations. Making cities greener requires multilateral efforts. Governments must implement carbon-reduction targets through incentives, regulations and investments to encourage renewable tech and Mobility-as-a-Service models. Businesses can drive sustainability through innovative, eco-friendly products. Citizens play a huge role through individual choices in transport, energy usage and waste management. Together, by going green we can build a future of thriving, resilient cities for generations to come. The time to act is now. LET’S GO GREEN! Join the conversation with us at Leafy Communities today.
