At the C40 Summit, cities’ strategies against the climate crisis
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There were eighteen in 2005, when the alliance was born, today they are just under a hundred. C40, or the Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of 97 large metropolises including the Italians Rome, Milan and Venice, has met in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, after the forced break due to the health emergency. From 19 to 21 October, mayors and experts will discuss what measures to take to try not to exceed the threshold of 1.5 degrees, “showing the progress made by global cities in addressing the climate crisis during the pandemic”.
The C40 Summit will be attended by important names, the rest of a group of cities in which 582 million people live and which have the common goal of fighting the climate crisis. In addition to the landlord, the mayor of the Argentine capital Horacio Rodríguez Larretaon stage will go up among others Ada Colau of Barcelona, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen of Copenhagen, Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Sadiq Khan from London, Claudia López of Bogotá, Oh Se-hoon from Seoul, Elizabeth Tawiah Sackey of Accra, Ricardo Nunes of San Paolo e Yuriko Koike of Tokyo. And for Italy Roberto Gualtierimayor of Rome and Giuseppe Salamayor of Milan.
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Alongside them are figures of the caliber of António GuterresSecretary-General of the United Nations, Jeffrey Sachsdirector of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development, Carlos Morenoprofessor of the Sorbonne in Paris who during the pandemic launched the idea of the city for 15 minutes, Michael Bloombergformer mayor of New York and today special envoy for the ambitions and climate solutions of the United Nations, Sir David Kingwhich created the Center for Climate Repair at Cambridge University.
On paper, the Buenos Aires Summit therefore seems to be the appointment par excellence to understand the progress made and those that must be taken, bearing in mind that cities occupy 2% of the earth’s surface but host more than half of the population, absorbing over 70% of the energy produced and emitting 80% of greenhouse gases. They find themselves in a difficult situation both because they are part of the problem and because of the not always easy relationship with central governments. Especially this year with a United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP27), it will take place from 6 to 18 November in Sharm El Sheikh, which many commentators look at with little hope even before its inception.
According to the C40 Cities alliance, adequate strategies could lead to halving emissions in five years. The highest reduction in high-income countries ever recorded. Furthermore, investments in environmental policies could create over 50 million jobs, while at the same time reducing air pollution by up to 29% in ten years and thus preventing over 270,000 premature deaths in the cities that are part of the association. After all in order to remain below one and a half degrees in the increase in temperature, the average per capita emissions of residents of the metropolises that adhere to the C40 must necessarily decrease by 50% by 2030.
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However, we should focus on the “adaptive capacity of the metropolis”, as Sir David King defines it in the report Cities in a climate crisis published in these hours by the Climate Crisis Advisory Group (Ccag) which he himself founded. “It can allow for a quick recovery. Yet most people in cities around the world breathe polluted air, which kills an estimated seven million people every year. Many also lack access to safe and affordable water and sanitation and live in disaster-prone areas due to extreme weather events. Most cities offer inadequate transportation options. In absolute terms, energy use and consumption are higher than in other areas. “
Those born in the last 20 years, the CCAG argues, will suffer increasingly severe effects. Effects that will fall mainly on the poorest segments of the world population who have a marginal role in greenhouse gas emissions. Oxfam, the international confederation of nonprofits dedicated to reducing global poverty, reports that the funds needed to tackle the climate disaster have increased by 800% over the past two decades.
Hence the need to intervene starting with road transport, the main source of air pollution globally and is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions in cities. “Metropolises C40 are building a low-emission future where most residents will be able to travel on foot, by bicycle or by public transport, while ensuring that the remaining car journeys are made using zero-emission vehicles“, says the network of metropolises. It is a clear turning point which can be seen in capitals such as Paris, which has focused heavily on bicycles, but which is still far from being completed. And of time, according to climatologists such as Isabelle Seneviratnewe have very little to reverse the course.
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Between energy communities, waste management, creation of new green spaces, use of sensors to have the pulse of what is happening in real time starting from traffic and air pollution, LED lighting such as that of Buenos Aires itself which was the first metropolis to completely switch to new generation light bulbs, during the two days of the C40 Summit all or almost all the fundamental issues related to the attempt of many metropolises to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and in some cases even by 2030. Ambitious goals that are expected to be supported by concrete data and facts in Argentina.
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