THE CHEAT SHEET. The $22 trillion opportunity

That’s how much governments across the globe could save if they tweaked their cities and towns to the demands of nature.

Meaning, make them, say, climate-smart with expanded public transit, energy-saving buildings, and more efficient methods to manage waste. Such measures, according to a new study, could help the world save a whopping $22 trillion by 2050.

The Global Commission on Economy and Climate (GCEC), an independent initiative of big-ticket economists, former finance ministers and leading think tanks from the UK and six other countries.

The current finding says climate-smart cities can help enhance economic growth and quality of life significantly, while cutting carbon pollution. This means, economic growth and climate change mitigation efforts are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

There’s more. By 2030, climate-friendly measures could help governments avoid carbon pollution to the tune of 3.7 gigatonnes a year. That’s more than India’s entire annual output of greenhouse gasses.

These experts say there is now increasing evidence that emissions can decrease while economies continue to grow. They try to prove that becoming more sustainable and putting the world on a low carbon trajectory is actually feasible and good economics. And that’s why the GCEC report urges the world’s leading cities to commit to low-carbon development strategies by 2020.

They must, feel climate observers. As things stand there are only reluctant investments. But things are changing so fast and furious that urban living is taking a beating across the globe, thanks to the impact of climate change. Cities house over half the world’s population, consume 75 per cent of its energy and emit almost 80 per cent of all greenhouse gases. Also, alarmingly, many of the world’s cities lie near the sea, and several of the most vulnerable ones are those in coastal locations.

Public transport is the best place to begin. Experts say long-term planning for urban development and transport can improve people’s lives and fight climate change. For instance, improved public transport can help cut the use of private vehicles. Building bus lanes, such as those rolling out in Buenos Aires — and in our very own Ahmedabad too — could cut commuting time by up to 50 per cent.

Air pollution kills over 4,000 people every day in China. In Delhi, air pollution, aided mostly by vehicular emissions, claims, on an average, 80 lives a day.

Green buildings, for one, make a lot of difference. They reduce energy use, reduce heat, and cut demand for water. Biogas from waste could be harnessed as fuel to provide electricity to communities, as is already being done in Lagos in Nigeria, and other cities.

Only if we act. The GCEC report says we have to get climate-smart because by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas, with Africa’s urban population growing at twice the rate of the rest of the world. The findings have hogged headlines as they came ahead of the crucial climate summit to be held in Paris in December this year.

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