Indonesia is relocating its capital to a new location in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Jakarta is facing several challenges, but rising tides and sinking soil will take its toll on this massive city.

Due to uncontrolled groundwater extraction and rising sea levels, parts of the city will be under water by 2050. With more than 30 million residents and a massive footprint, Jakarta is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet, leading to congestion, pollution, untreated wastewater and other urban issues. The Indonesian government hopes that relocating the capital will help eliminate some of the pressure and remove the downside of the present location. It might be the first wave of mass migration away from this historic port city.

Borneo is one of the largest islands in the world. In fact, it holds the distinction of being the third-largest island globally. Greenland and New Guinea are the only islands larger. Borneo offers a stunning diversity of landscapes, ranging from lush rainforests teeming with unique wildlife to towering mountains and vast coastlines. This biodiversity and sheer size contribute significantly to the island’s ecological and cultural importance.

Indonesia shares the island of Borneo with Brunei and Malaysia. Brunei is a sultanate located on the north coast. It controls about 1 percent of the island’s land area. Meanwhile, Malaysia controls about 26 percent of the island, while Indonesia claims about 73 percent of Borneo—known as East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan provinces.

Indonesia hopes that establishing the new capital in East Kalimantan will stimulate economic growth in a less developed region of the country.

The new capital, Nusantara, is envisioned as a “forest city” with a focus on sustainability, renewable energy, and smart technologies. It’s about as far north as you can go in Indonesia, which means that it might be a degree or two cooler than Jakarta.

The relocation of Indonesia’s capital is a complex and ambitious project with potential benefits and drawbacks. Critics argue that building a new city will lead to deforestation and threaten endangered species in Borneo. The relocation project also raises concerns about the displacement and potential marginalization of Indigenous communities in the area.

Borneo is one of just two islands in the world that has endangered orangutans. Borneo is home to an incredible diversity of plant and animal life, many of which are found nowhere else on earth. Expanding human populations and economic activity will not help save the island’s rainforests and overall biodiversity. Rainforests play a vital role in storing carbon dioxide and regulating the climate. Deforestation releases this stored carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change.

Unfortunately, the entire island of Borneo has been under extreme pressure from industry for the past 40 years. Mining, logging and agriculture have deforested thousands, if not millions, of acres. Deforestation across Borneo is a major environmental concern, with the island losing a significant portion of its vast rainforests. This has had devastating consequences for the island’s unique biodiversity, indigenous communities, and the global climate.

The expansion of palm oil plantations is a major culprit, driven by the global demand for this vegetable oil used in food, cosmetics, and biofuels. Clearing rainforest for these plantations destroys critical habitat for many species, while releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Hopefully, clearing the forest for a new capital will not define this forest city. Hopefully, Nusantara will be a model in best practices for the world.

The official groundbreaking ceremony for Nusantara took place in March 2022. Construction is ongoing, with initial phases focusing on government buildings and essential infrastructure. The full relocation process is expected to take decades.

Nusantara is located on the east coast of the island of East Kalimantan.

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Italy is known for its natural beauty and history, but environmentalists say it doesn’t do enough to protect natural wonders, such as the Venice Lagoon or its Mediterranean coastline. Parliament approved a new constitutional law to safeguard public health, environment, biodiversity and ecosystems. Enforcing the law will be the challenge.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini called the new constitutional law a strong and symbolic act, but said the principles established now needed collective and individual actions consistent with those principles. Conservationists hope that parliament also will update existing legislation on environmental issues to avoid legal delays.

“Finally, environment protection has become a fundamental principle of the republic, which future legislation must be inspired by and past legislation adapted to,” said Italian WWF president Donatella Bianchi.

Italy’s ecosystems include the mountainous regions of the the Alps, temperate woodlands, coastal waters, freshwater river systems and shrub lands in the southern part of the country. Because Italy is a member of the European Union, its environmental policies largely fall under EU environmental legislation. They have failed to adequately protect people or the environment.

According to the World Health Organization, the air quality in Italy is unsafe.

More than 66,000 Italians die prematurely each year from air pollution, including particulates and ozone. Its air quality is the worst in the European Union. EU law on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe requires Member States to limit the exposure of citizens to these particles. Italy is among the countries of the European Union emitting the largest total amount of CO2.

Water contamination also is taking its toll. In 2013, more than 127,000 people living in the Veneto Region learned that their tap water was contaminated with perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS)—also known as forever chemicals because of their persistence in the environment and their persistent threat to public health. The contamination affected groundwater, surface water and drinking water.

In 2014, the mayor of Rome banned the use of public water after tests found that the water supply was not safe for human consumption. Later that year, the European Commission put Italy on notice to reduce the environmental impact of the ILVA steel plant in Taranto, Europe’s largest iron and steel works. Tests found heavy contamination of the air, soil, surface and ground waters both at the ILVA site and near the city of Taranto. Fallout from the emissions of the steel plant caused the problem. The EU demanded its compliance with the Industrial Emissions Directive and other EU regulations.

The environmental issue that worries Italians the most is waste management. Other environmental concerns include air pollution, global warming and climate change.

As Italy recovers from the global economic collapse, it hopes to incorporate green initiatives into its economic policies, including: greening the tax code, expanding environment-related markets and green trade policies, promoting eco-innovation and investing in green technology.

Through its recent policies and financial incentives, Italy has made a major push toward embracing solar energy technology. However, support for fossil fuel consumption in Italy has risen sharply since 2012. The bulk of its fossil fuel tax subsidies focus on consumption, including diesel tax credits and tax breaks for energy use in agriculture in forestry and industry. The government also provides tax exemptions for gas and coal production. Hopefully, it’s offering the same sort of subsidy for solar energy production

Italy has impressive growth in the renewable energy sector. Italy has invested heavily in renewable energy, having surpassed its 2020 target already. The share of renewables in Italy’s energy mix has shown a distinct upward trend from 6 percent in 2007 to 15 percent in 2014. The country’s green energy incentive scheme has reduced the cost of photovoltaic systems by 72 percent.

While current economic factors will influence the progress of clean technology in Italy, the International Energy Agency’s made three primary recommendations. It said that Italy must:

• Develop a national energy sector consistent with the modern energy market;
• Identify and address deficiencies in its energy infrastructure; and
• Fulfill its climate change responsibilities.

Under the country’s six-month term as President of the European Commission, Italy pushed for higher recycling targets and progress toward the complete elimination of EU landfills, green job growth and the tighter control of emissions from medium-sized combustion plants.

In 2019, Italy became the first country in the world to make sustainability and climate crisis compulsory subjects for schoolchildren. State schools now incorporate the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development into several subjects. It devotes one hour a week to themes including global warming. Other subjects, including geography, mathematics and physics, are taught from the perspective of sustainability, announced Lorenzo Fioramonti, Italy’s education minister.

“The entire [education] ministry is being changed to make sustainability and climate the center of the education model,” said Fioramonti, a former economics professor who was criticized earlier this year for encouraging students to miss school to take part in climate protests.

“I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school.”

Fioramonti, a member of the pro-environment Five Star Movement, is the government’s most vocal supporter of green policies. He has taken heat for proposing taxes on airline tickets, plastic, and sugary foods to generate funds for education and welfare.

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By Gro Harlem Bruntland

In the early 1990s, when I was Prime Minister of Norway, I once found myself debating sustainable development with an opposition leader who insisted that I tell him the government’s single most important priority in that field. Frustrated, I replied that what he was asking was impossible to answer. I concluded our exchange by explaining why: “Because everything is connected to everything.”

Fortunately, such thinking is now more widely held than it was back then, thanks partly to the human development approach, which emphasizes the complexity of nature and recognizes that one-dimensional solutions cannot address multidimensional problems like those we currently face. Indeed, today’s challenges are seldom simply environmental, social, or economic, and their solutions do not lie within the area of competence of a single government ministry. Without broad, multidisciplinary impact analysis, such narrow thinking can lead to new problems.

This is particularly true of climate change. Fortunately, a growing realization that rising global temperatures are not simply an environmental concern provides reason to hope that world leaders are finally ready to address the problem in an effective way.

In the talks leading up to the Paris climate conference, a consensus emerged that climate change is not only linked to many other major environmental problems (climate, water, soil, and biodiversity are all a part of the same system); it is also intertwined with social and economic challenges, like poverty, sustainable development, and the wellbeing of future generations.

“All too frequently, leaders will concern themselves with matters that are closest at hand, while the most serious issues are often more distant – geographically or in time,” said former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “If we fail to tackle climate change, the worst effects will be suffered by future generations and by poor countries far from global power centers.”

At the same time, it is not only the future that should concern us. As the economists Amartya Sen and Sudhir Anand argued more than a decade ago, “It would be a gross violation of the universalist principle if we were to be obsessed about intergenerational equity without at the same time seizing the problem of intragenerational equity.”

After ignoring the universalist principle for too long, world leaders finally seem to be acknowledging the magnitude of the problem – as well as their responsibilities to people far beyond their immediate electoral constituencies. The climate agreement between the United States and China, announced last year, indicates that one of the major stumbling blocks in the negotiations – the schism between rich and poor countries – is being overcome. With China now working to reverse the growth in its greenhouse-gas emissions, other developing countries will find it increasingly hard to argue against controlling their own emissions.

The European Union continues to set a high bar for action on climate change. Last year, the EU pledged to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 40 percent, relative to 1990 levels, by 2030.

By that year, at least 27 percent of the EU’s energy is to come from renewable sources.

The EU’s pioneering carbon-trading scheme is also an important step forward, though emission allowances will have to be cut and the cost of emitting increased if the system is to be effective. Investments in tomorrow’s energy supply and production processes will largely come from the private sector; but it is up to government to develop the institutional and regulatory frameworks that ensure that these investments are allocated in ways that are environmentally sustainable.

Finally, the sharp rise in pledges to the Green Climate Fund indicates a growing recognition of the disproportionate impact of climate change on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Total national contributions have surpassed the preliminary target of $10 billion. Countries such as Mexico, Panama, Indonesia, and Mongolia are now contributors, even if the main responsibility for the problem rests with the world’s major economies.

For billions of people, the stakes could not be higher. In Paris, the UN is promoted the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of global targets that represent a quantum leap forward from their predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals, in that they embed sustainability in every aspect of policy and practice.

But the SDG targets are unlikely to be met if world leaders are unable to forge a credible accord to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2° Celsius. A stable climate provides the underpinnings for poverty reduction, prosperity, and the rule of law – in short, human development. That, I might have told my opponent a generation ago, is the positive side of everything being connected.

Author: Gro Harlem Brundtland is a former prime minister of Norway and a member of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights.

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Singapore has been a model for urban efficiency for years. Cities around the world can learn a great deal from this city state.

Cities cover just 2 percent of the Earth’s surface, yet consume about 75 percent of the world’s resources, and given that more of the world’s population now live in cities than in rural areas, it’s clear they are key to tackling climate change and reducing resource use.

Urban administrators face huge challenges to make cities more sustainable. From traffic jams and inefficient buildings to social inequality and housing, the problems are complex and hard to tackle — but not insurmountable.

Some cities are forging ahead with the use of innovative urban planning, technological and governance models, showing that with the right focus and resources, cities can become smarter and more sustainable.

According to the latest Siemens’ Green City Index for Asia, Singapore is the best-performing city in the region, when measured against a range of sustainability criteria.

“Singapore is at the leading edge of sustainability,” says Nicholas You, chairman of the World Urban Campaign Steering Committee at UN-Habitat. “It’s an island state with limited resources so it had no choice but to go green if it wanted to survive economically.”

Singapore’s experiences have important lessons for other urban centers. Take its water treatment. In 1963, water functionality was shared between multiple ministries and agencies, which made it difficult to formulate a coordinated, long-term strategy.

With a rising population and finite freshwater resources, action was needed, so ministers set up a national water agency, PUB, which became the sole body responsible for the collection, production, distribution and reclamation of water in the city.

Today, its water operation has been transformed. Two thirds of Singapore’s land surface is now a water catchment area with water stored in 17 reservoirs, including the Marina Basin, right in the heart of the city.

Called NEWater, wastewater is collected and treated to produce water that’s good enough to drink. This meets 30 percent of the city’s water needs, a target that will be increased to 50 percent of future needs by 2060.

Siemens was contracted to identify CO2 reduction opportunities in transport, residential and non-industrial buildings, and IT/communications in the Tampines district.

As part of the city’s plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2030, Siemens will report back in 2013 with implementation costs, a plan to implement the changes and the design of pilots to trail three technological solutions.

“This will be a good test-bed for new technologies to prove what we can do,” says Dr Roland Busch, Siemens’ CEO of infrastructure and cities sector. “It’s a way to demonstrate in the highly competitive environment that is Singapore, that we can bring energy efficiency to the next level in addressing all the basic needs of cities.”

EDF and Veolia recently signed an agreement with Singapore’s Housing Development Board (HDB), the city-state’s largest developer, to develop software that will help it develop sustainable, urban planning solutions in HDB towns.

ForCity will simulate the built environment of a city and its impact on resources, the environment, people and intervention costs to help the HDB make its towns function more efficiently and become more pleasant to live in. The tool will be trialed in the Jurong East district of Singapore.

Transport is another sector that has seen investment recently. On an island of 4.8 million people with limited space, moving people around as efficiently as possible is key to its economic viability. A decade ago, city administrators warned that congestion could cost Singapore’s economy $2-3 billion per year, if transport infrastructure was not improved.

Then, there were two separate transport-charging systems in the city: road tolls and public transport, including the metro and buses. But since 2009, after a series of smart card innovations, people have been able to use e-Symphony, an IBM-designed payment card that can be used to pay for road tolls, bus travel, taxis, the metro, and even shopping.

The card can process 20 million fare transactions a day and collects extensive traffic data, allowing city administrators to constantly tweak routes to ensure the most efficient journeys and minimize congestion.

All these measures combine to make Singapore a smarter city. “What we have done is to research and try to distill the principles for Singapore’s success in sustainable urban development – we call it a live-ability framework,” says Khoo Teng Chye, executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities based in Singapore.

“Quality of life, environmental sustainability and competitive economics. These are the components that make cities liveable.”

As the competition for resources increases and cities expand to accommodate rising populations, even those without the geographic constraints of Singapore will have to embrace smart city principles. If they don’t, they will lose out financially, unable to attract businesses and talent from cities that do. The planet simply can’t sustain current levels of resource use and environmental degradation. It’s not a choice; cities have to change.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the launch of a major new initiative, the Global Sustainable Cities Network (GSCN), at the third annual Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) yesterday in London. This builds on the UAE’s already active role in international clean energy cooperation through several initiatives in efficiency and low-carbon energy supply.

The GSCN will provide a platform for pioneering sustainable city initiatives throughout the world; enabling knowledge sharing of city development best practices. It will publish a set of recommendations for driving the commercialization, scalability and cost reduction beginning with focus areas such as waste-to-energy and demand-side management within cities.

The Network will also provide a platform to encourage collaboration between cities and drive public private partnerships.

Founding members of the Ministerial initiative, in addition to the UAE, include China, Sweden and Denmark, who have worked closely in preparing for the launch and the initiative’s work plan. The Network is open to participation by additional CEM countries. Masdar City, the UAE’s emerging clean-tech cluster and test-bed for renewable energy and sustainable technologies, will act as Secretariat to the Network.

“The Global Sustainable Cities Network is a platform that will foster collaboration among pioneering urban sustainability programs applying clean energy technology in cities. For a nation such as ours facing exponential growth and resource demand, this network can be a critical tool for our rapidly evolving cities,” UAE Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change and Chief Executive of Masdar Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber said The CEM is the only annual meeting of ministers from the world’s leading economies that addresses policies and programs that promote the advancement of clean energy technology.

The UAE has been a key driver of the CEM process through Masdar and the Directorate of Energy and Climate Change at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which hosted the second ministerial in Abu Dhabi last year and the organizing session for the inaugural ministerial with US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu.

“The UAE believes that the future energy landscape will depend significantly on energy that is sustainable, affordable and secure. Our country has been at the forefront of oil and gas production for decades, and we’re now using that energy expertise as a foundation for international collaboration in the clean technology sector,” Al-Jaber said. “Encouraging clean energy adoption will hinge on our ability to work collectively in sharing knowledge and delivering tangible projects similar to the London Array offshore wind farm being developed by Masdar and its partners here in the UK.”

The UAE also presented its Atlas Project, which will assess and map renewable energy resources, part of the global atlas led by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) headquartered in Abu Dhabi.

During a special ceremony, ministers from participating countries, including the Germany, India, South Africa and United States joined the UAE in pledging their support for the IRENA atlas project.

Through Masdar, the UAE is investing heavily in large scale renewable energy projects and clean technology, both within the Emirates and across the globe in markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and China. The UAE has also encouraged clean energy in developing countries through smaller scale aid projects in Afghanistan, Tonga and Seychelles, and has committed US$350 million over seven years for such projects.

Dr. Al Jaber also participated in the High Level Panel of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative. This was launched by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to promote universal energy access, doubling both energy efficiency and renewable energy adoption. It is expected to make major announcements at the UN Earth Summit in Rio this June. The UAE will have a major presence in Rio, where negotiations will involve the clean energy economy and sustainable development, both key points as the UAE continues its exponential growth.

“As populations like ours expand and the risks of climate change continue to grow, creating a sustainable future for all will depend on empowering ourselves to use resources efficiently and responsibly,” said Al Jaber. “The UAE is investing in measurable goals to achieve clean energy related objectives with real-world impact.”

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.d communities around the world.

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He has been called the “superman pope,” and it would be hard to deny that Pope Francis has had a good December. Cited by President Barack Obama as a key player in the thawing relations between the US and Cuba, the Argentinian pontiff followed that by lecturing his cardinals on the need to clean up Vatican politics. But can Francis achieve a feat that has so far eluded secular powers and inspire decisive action on climate change.

It looks as if he will give it a go. In 2015, the pope will issue a lengthy message on the subject to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world’s main religions.

The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

“Our academics supported the pope’s initiative to influence next year’s crucial decisions,” Sorondo told Cafod, the Catholic development agency, at a meeting in London. “The idea is to convene a meeting with leaders of the main religions to make all people aware of the state of our climate and the tragedy of social exclusion.”

Following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners.

According to Vatican insiders, Francis will meet other faith leaders and lobby politicians at the general assembly in New York in September, when countries will sign up to new anti-poverty and environmental goals.

In recent months, the pope has argued for a radical new financial and economic system to avoid human inequality and ecological devastation. In October he told a meeting of Latin American and Asian landless peasants and other social movements: “An economic system centred on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.

“The system continues unchanged, since what dominates are the dynamics of an economy and a finance that are lacking in ethics. It is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands.

“The monopolizing of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness,” he said.

In Lima last month, bishops from every continent expressed their frustration with the stalled climate talks and, for the first time, urged rich countries to act.

Sorondo, a fellow Argentinian who is known to be close to Pope Francis, said: “Just as humanity confronted revolutionary change in the 19th century at the time of industrialisation, today we have changed the natural environment so much. If current trends continue, the century will witness unprecedented climate change and destruction of the ecosystem with tragic consequences.”

According to Neil Thorns, head of advocacy at Cafod, said: “The anticipation around Pope Francis’s forthcoming encyclical is unprecedented. We have seen thousands of our supporters commit to making sure their MPs know climate change is affecting the poorest communities.”

However, Francis’s environmental radicalism is likely to attract resistance from Vatican conservatives and in right-wing church circles, particularly in the US – where Catholic climate skeptics also include John Boehner, Republican leader of the House of Representatives and Rick Santorum, the former Republican presidential candidate.

Cardinal George Pell, a former archbishop of Sydney who has been placed in charge of the Vatican’s budget, is a climate change skeptic who has been criticised for claiming that global warming has ceased and that if carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were doubled, then “plants would love it.”

Dan Misleh, director of the Catholic climate covenant, said: “There will always be 5-10 percent of people who will take offence. They are very vocal and have political clout. This encyclical will threaten some people and bring joy to others. The arguments are around economics and science rather than morality.

“A papal encyclical is rare. It is among the highest levels of a pope’s authority. It will be 50 to 60 pages long; it’s a big deal. But there is a contingent of Catholics here who say he should not be getting involved in political issues, that he is outside his expertise.”

Francis will also be opposed by the powerful US evangelical movement, said Calvin Beisner, spokesman for the conservative Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, which has declared the US environmental movement to be “un-biblical” and a false religion.

“The pope should back off,” he said. “The Catholic church is correct on the ethical principles but has been misled on the science. It follows that the policies the Vatican is promoting are incorrect. Our position reflects the views of millions of evangelical Christians in the US.”

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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Qatar‘s vision and mission to become the regional capital of green building is becoming a reality with the recent launch of the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) by the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD).

Described as the ‘world’s most comprehensive’ sustainability rating system for the built environment, the new GSAS version includes the world’s first railroad projects assessment system and the Middle East’s first sustainable parks and public space assessment system.

Systems to assess urban planning, health facilities, sports facilities, green buildings project management system GSAS gate, training programs for professionals in the real estate sector and launch of GSAS computer-based tests around the world are among the new features.

GSAS Version 2.0 has upgraded the system to handle – through a scientific approach – the technical challenges involved in air conditioning open stadiums, using conventional methods as well as renewable energy, in line with the FIFA 2022 requirements.

Yet another distinctive feature in the new version is “GSAS Publication Series,” which provides all scientific references and technical information on amazon.com as well as international publishing houses to facilitate easy access to information and support Gord’s globalization goals. Information released by Gord on the occasion of the launch of GSAS Version 2.0 also indicate that Qatar has emerged as one of the most advanced countries in terms of applying sustainability criteria to real estate projects in cities.

The sustainable cities’ area in Qatar amounts to more than 500 million square feet, the largest in the Middle East.

These cities include Lusail, the Ministry of Interior’s Lekhwiya City and Barwa City. In terms of major developments, there is a total area of 12mn sq ft covered, including Doha Festival City, Bin Tawar Mall and North Gate.

Separate and standalone buildings, that are applying GSAS criteria, include more than 300 new projects, with a total area of 30mn sq ft and comprising commercial towers, schools, medical centers, mosques and towers.

The new version of GSAS will be able to handle projects outside Qatar. Various institutions and individuals in Jordan have been certified in this regard recently after completing the relevant training.

The system is set for modification soon in order to be in line with Jordan’s climate and environmental requirements, before the application of GSAS.

The second version of GSAS will introduce several training programs in various disciplines for engineers, technicians and professionals with courses held for mechanical, energy, electric, architecture, construction, environment engineering and project management, in addition to others.

In order to offer GSAS professional tests across the world, Gord has entered into a partnership with Prometric for developing a testing platform that enables computer based delivery of exams through more than 300 centers in over 100 countries.

Gord, a non-profit subsidiary of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, is a government organization located at the Qatar Science & Technology Park.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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The effects of climate change have cost China US$32.9 billion since 1990, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s leading planning agency. It warns the country is ill-prepared to deal with the consequences of global warming, and has outlined a national adaptation plan to ensure all sectors take the threat seriously.

The NDRC recommends further investment in developing resilient infrastructure, warning that 2000 people died in the past two decades as a result of extreme weather events.

“We have deep concern of the negative impacts of climate change, like other developing countries,” Li Gao, Climate Change Deputy Director General at the NRDC told RTCC last month.

“If you look at China we have a very long coastal line, and if you look at sea level rising, it will have a very big threat to our development. Typhoon Haiyan reminded the world adaptation is urgent. We think it’s the right time to pay more attention to adaptation, because the urgent thing is something that is happening.”

What many are calling China’s adaptation blueprint warns that the health of the population and the natural environment it relies on are at acute risk from changing conditions.

“Degraded ecosystems, threatened biodiversity, and a variety of infectious diseases” are major concerns it says, recommending that forests, grasslands, wetlands, and desert regions are better protected.

The plans call for more support to be directed to farmers, highlighting rising levels of soil erosion, poor water management and a lack of access to drought-tolerant crops.

Agencies must make “full use of international funds for adaptation action” the NDRC say, suggesting that the funding potential of ‘catastrophe bonds’ and ‘climate-related service products’ also need to be explored.

Critically, the report says early warning systems that can help populations escape dangerous storms are “insufficient”, while water supplies, drainage, gas and telecommunications need to be designed to cope with severe climate impacts.

The NDRC also suggests public awareness of climate adaptation needs to be urgently raised, while better South-South international cooperation also needs to be explored.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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Tom Steyer isn’t the only ambitious fundraiser working to get climate hawks elected. Meet Nick Josefowitz. Both men live in San Francisco, but while Steyer is playing on the national scene, Josefowitz is focused on his home state. He recently founded a new political action committee, Leadership for a Clean Economy, to raise money for future leaders on climate change policy in the California state legislature.

Josefowitz made his fortune founding RenGen Energy, a developer and operator of solar power plants, and at the age of 30 he has already retired to focus on environmental activism.

LCE is similar to organizations like EMILY’s List in that it does not actually collect and disburse money itself. Rather, it examines candidates and recommends the most worthy ones to a network of donors who can then make direct contributions. In California, such contributions from an individual to a candidate are limited in size to $4,100. Some PACs raise and spend unlimited amounts to promote candidates, but Josefowitz decided not to go that route.

“We think raising money directly for candidates is more effective,” he tells Grist. “Candidates know more about how to spend their money. If you do an independent expenditure, the first thing you do is spend $30,000 on a consultant, which is money straight down the drain.” Indeed, many PACs, especially on the right, have been caught spending most of the money they raise on operational expenses rather than activities that directly help candidates.

Given that the Democrats hold wide majorities in the California State Assembly and State Senate, it may seem odd for LCE to focus environmental dollars there. Shouldn’t the environmental movement’s top priority be helping Democrats hang on to the U.S. Senate and regain seats in the U.S. House?

“It is clearly important to stop the Koch brothers-funded Republicans from taking over the Senate,” Josefowitz wrote in an MSNBC op-ed last week, but even if Democrats succeed in that mission, “we will have another two years of bitter, partisan trench warfare in Congress without any progress.” Until the political climate changes in D.C., we have to focus on the states, where things actually get done, he argues.

But California already has the most advanced clean energy standards in the country, so why spend money and effort there? “California is one of the states that has done the most, but it hasn’t done nearly enough,” says Josefowitz. “If all the states in the Union looked like California today, we’d still have an extremely long way to go. California still needs to keep pushing the envelope. A lot of the things California is most famous for — for example, its 33 percent renewable portfolio standard, cap-and-trade, the low-carbon fuel standard — sunset in 2020.

We need to set more aggressive targets for 2020, 2030, 2040 and ‘50.” Also, California is huge — if it were its own country, it would be the world’s eighth largest economy. And where California leads, other states follow. A dozen other states have chosen to adopt California’s ambitious fuel-economy standards for cars, for example.

Josefowitz believes it’s insufficient to have a state legislature full of Democrats who vote the right way on the environment. The climate crisis demands more than just passive supporters in the majority; it needs leaders who will write bills, garner public attention, and corral votes. In California, thanks to term limits that hold every legislator to no more than 12 years in office, senators and assembly members can quickly become leaders, without having to wait decades to assume powerful positions like in most states or in Congress.

Eco-minded campaign donors can get a lot more bang for the buck in California than on the national stage.

“Because of the constant turnover in Sacramento because of term limits, electing one or two dedicated climate leaders can have an impact that it won’t in D.C.,” says Josefowitz, who speaks with an English accent left over from a childhood in London. Born in New York, he is an American citizen, but he only moved to San Francisco two and a half years ago. On the East Coast, where Democratic urban machines are often deeply entrenched, it might be hard for a newcomer like Josefowitz to have an impact. But in California, he is already ensconced in a network of wealthy, eco-friendly donors.

And so Josefowitz has set out to find candidates who might play the role in California’s state legislature that Californian Henry Waxman has played in Congress: the environment’s indefatigable advocate and master legislator. Since state legislators cannot spend decades working on an issue in Sacramento, it’s critical that they come in with an understanding of complex sustainability issues and policies, Josefowitz argues. This year, only two candidates, both running for Assem

bly, have earned LCE’s support: Suja Lowenthal, a member of the Long Beach City Council, and Joe Krovoza, the mayor of Davis. Winning LCE’s approval is arduous, requiring the candidates to demonstrate both knowledge and achievement on the issues, through a series of interviews and questionnaires. The vetting is done by Josefowitz and LCE’s sole employee, Political Director Rachel Van Wert, with input from donors in the network.

“It was almost like they were doing opposition research,” jokes Krovoza. He won them over with his deep environmental knowledge. He was able to tick off a litany of climate actions he has taken in Davis, such as setting a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and requiring solar panels and bike crossings as conditions of approving a new mixed-use development. And even while serving as mayor, Krovoza has continued his work as director of external relations for the Institute of Transportation Studies at U.C. Davis.

“I know the Sustainable Communities law and AB 32 inside and out,” boasts Krovoza, referring to the California Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Law, which promotes smart growth, and the Global Warming Solutions Act, which created the state’s cap-and-trade system.

LCE has had a tangible impact on Krovoza’s campaign. “I’ve raised about $300,000; I think they’re at about $30,000 for me,” he says. “And they’re cranking away. They’re calling all the environmentalists we can identify in the district. That’s been huge for me. They’ve been my advocates in the environmental community in the district. Some of the environmentalists are active in the Democratic Party. Some of them have volunteered to walk [knocking on doors for the campaign], some have volunteered to put up a road sign.”

Krovoza was introduced to Josefowitz by Bob Epstein, who sits on the board of the Institute of Transportation Studies and chairs the NRDC Action Fund. “When Nick said he was interested in developing environmental champions, I said, ‘Great idea,’” recalls Epstein. “There are very few politicians now who are well versed in issues. They tend to float at the conceptual level and rarely know the details. Every cycle in the California legislature there is less leadership [on the environment].” Frequently, state legislators are more focused on running for higher office than on getting things done in Sacramento. Those are the kinds of candidates LCE avoids.

Josefowitz has found his climate leaders for 2014; his PAC won’t be endorsing any more people this year. Now he’ll be looking out for the next batch of promising politicians.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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By Cisco CEO, John Chambers

In a fast-urbanizing world, India is setting the pace. Over the next ten years, more than one hundred million Indians will move from villages to cities, seeking schools for their children, health care for their families, and jobs for themselves. With more than 833 million people still living in the country’s 640,000 villages, this unprecedented exodus will only accelerate.

“Mass urbanization” is an abstract concept, but one piece of data may help illustrate the enormity of changes ahead: India today has only 20 percent of the total floor space it will need by 2030 to accommodate the millions expected to migrate to its cities. Put another way, India must build a staggering 900 million square meters of new urban residential space in less than twenty years. Without radical innovation, expansion on such scale will place an unsustainable strain on the environment.

I visit India regularly and always return with deep admiration for its people’s optimism and work ethic. In the world’s largest democracy, change often happens slowly, and it can seem messy and chaotic. But I have no doubt change will come to India. Its people will face up to their problems and get the solutions right.

As India devises those solutions, however, it would do well to embrace some basic principles of successful development. The first is open standards. Imagine the savings in energy costs, carbon emissions, and water that could be realized by adopting global open standards such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). At our offices in India, we’ve already implemented LEED standards at their highest levels, dramatically reducing energy usage compared to our buildings in the United States.

Another challenge is traffic. By 2020, motor vehicle traffic in India is expected to increase fivefold – and yet, over that same period, the nation’s highway network is projected to grow by only 4 percent per year. At Cisco we like to say, “Don’t commute to compute.” We have launched a number of initiatives around the world to make it easier for people to get work done without having to move around and consume energy resources.

South Korea, for example, has adopted a plan to create 450 “smart work centers” by 2015. Based on open platforms, these centers will result in $1.3 billion savings in transit expenses with a reduction of 1.1 million tons in carbon emissions. Telecommuting can save money and reduce traffic, but only if the digital and energy infrastructure is reliable.

As the country develops, it must employ smart planning techniques and make targeted investments in its cities. To date, in post-independence India, the only major cities created are the capital cities of Chandigarh and Gandhinagar. Indian planners are looking to change the economic face of the nation through the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). As part of this $90 billion undertaking, the world’s largest infrastructure project, India will build twenty-four new cities across fifteen hundred kilometers, improving the living standards of 180 million people.

When completed, DMIC will create a center of global manufacturing and trade supported by world-class infrastructure. Cisco is working with DMIC to provide master planning and information and communications technology, as well as offering citizen services including education, transportation, and public safety and security, all while creating and supplying a new digital urban infrastructure from the ground up.

DMIC will reduce the time it takes to ship goods between Delhi and Mumbai from fourteen days to a single day, allowing the government to work toward its goal of increasing the share of India’s GDP created through manufacturing from 15 per cent to 25 percent by 2022. DMIC, which aims to generate one hundred million new manufacturing jobs, is a powerful example of how visionary leadership can transform communities and cities. India needs more such examples.

Unfortunately, technology is often an afterthought for city planners and real estate developers. When cities were built in the United States, gas and water were cheaply available and cities were designed mainly for cars, not people. Today, it is possible to create smart cities with intelligent networks that manage basic citizen services and replace sprawling concrete jungles fit only for cars with spaces that are walkable, bikeable, and livable. By embracing smart regulation, India can leapfrog less productive traditional stages of development and benefit from best practices employed all over the world.

Smart regulation, exemplified by the potential of India’s Unique Identification project, can accelerate how technology at scale enables sustainable growth.

Public-private partnerships should also play a critical role in providing the talent to build and run these new cities-and they are not as complex as many think. At Cisco, we call our Networking Academy program “the world’s largest classroom” because we have trained more than 4.25 million students worldwide. In India alone, we have 197 academies that provide training and certifications to thousands of students.

More is needed. In 2010, India had 500,000 civil engineers and 45,000 architects. That sounds like a lot until you measure it against what’s needed to match projected growth: 4 million civil engineers and 366,000 architects. Millions of young Indians must be trained and jobs created to address this skill shortage.

Although India has a National Skill Development Fund to help train workers over the next decade, the gap cannot be closed unless industry, academia, and the government work together. India’s IT industry offers grounds for optimism, having addressed its own challenges by training its workforce in creative ways and completely changing the labor ecosystem.

Urbanization will drive India’s return to the center of the world stage. But to realize that potential, its cities cannot grow in the unplanned way they traditionally have. Instead, India must foster urban spaces that are sustainable economically, socially, and environmentally. The essential building blocks are visionary leadership buttressed by global open standards, smart regulation, and public private partnerships – all underpinned by technology.

As it creates these new cities, India has a chance to be the model for twenty-first-century civilization.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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