Climate challenges, opportunities, and their impact on smart cities
The idea of a smart city often revolves around a more efficient, more technologically advanced and insightful model. Within the very DNA of this type of community lies a purpose to make resources more efficient, boost innovation and progress, and bring citizens forward to a way of living that meets their needs. The undeniable impact of climate change around the world poses one of the biggest threats we’ve ever had to face, while also providing huge opportunities for learning, which we must incorporate within the strategies of smart cities.
A new Net Zero by 2050: a Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector now opens the path to a better understanding on how the world can become more sustainable in the long run. The report is the world’s first comprehensive study of how to transition to a net zero energy system by 2050, while ensuring stable and affordable energy supplies, providing universal energy access, and enabling robust economic growth. It sets out a cost-effective and economically productive pathway, resulting in a clean, dynamic and resilient energy economy dominated by renewables like solar and wind instead of fossil fuels. The report also examines key uncertainties, such as the roles of bioenergy, carbon capture and behavioural changes in reaching net zero.
These aspects bring with them a new way of managing growth that can sustain the rapid evolution of smart cities around the globe. By already taking action on the biggest problems within the energy sector, smart community initiative can become greener and easier to sustain - and this can have a huge impact on not just on a local, but a global scale.
At a moment of climate crisis like the one we currently live in, we have a historic opportunity to bring about tangible change. But this requires real action and commitment from governments as well from international cooperation.
Just think about it - how would cities be if the fossil fuel consumption would drop? From cleaner air, to less emissions, the benefits are endless and influence other sectors to improve further, creating jobs and making our societies more prosperous in the process. Just think about all the money being spent around the world to keep under control the damages made by climate issues, also taking into account their effects on human life and health, and the action we can take to prevent this from continuing happening in the future.
The number of countries announcing pledges to achieve net-zero emissions over the coming decades continues to grow. Even if the pace of this initiative is still slow, and depends on individual governments to start moving things faster in the right directions, we are facing an unprecedented mission of repairing so much of the climate damage in the world, by committing to new models and ways of building modern life. But the benefits for communities, from local to the global result, are priceless - and that needs to be our drive for generations to come.
