The world is becoming increasingly urban, with cities now home to 45 percent of the global population of 8.2 billion, according to the World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results, released by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). The number of people living in cities has more than doubled since 1950, when only 20 percent of the world’s 2.5 billion people lived in cities. Looking ahead through 2050, two-thirds of global population growth is projected to occur in cities, and most of the remaining one-third in towns.

What Is A Megacity?

The number of megacities, urban areas with 10 million or more inhabitants, has quadrupled from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. More than half of these megacities (19) are in Asia.

Jakarta (Indonesia) is now the world’s most populous city, with nearly 42 million residents, followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh) with almost 40 million, and Tokyo (Japan) with 33 million. Cairo (Egypt) is the only non-Asian city among the top ten. By 2050, the number of megacities is expected to rise to 37, with cities such as Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dar es Salaam (United Republic of Tanzania), Hajipur (India), and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) projected to surpass the 10 million mark.

Despite the prominence of megacities, the report finds that small and medium-sized cities are home to more people than megacities and are growing at a faster pace, particularly in Africa and Asia. Of the 12,000 cities analyzed, 96 percent have fewer than one million inhabitants, and 81 percent have fewer than 250,000. 

The new data show that the total number of cities worldwide more than doubled between 1975 and 2025, and projections indicate that by 2050, the number of cities worldwide could exceed 15,000, with most having populations below 250,000.

The report also highlights the divergent growth patterns of cities. While many cities continue to expand, others are experiencing population decline. Notably, some city populations are shrinking even as their countries’ populations grow, while others are growing despite the decline of the national population. Most shrinking cities had fewer than 250,000 inhabitants in 2025, with over one-third located in China and 17 percent in India. However, some very large cities, including Mexico City and Chengdu, China, have also seen population decreases.

The Future Of Towns and Rural Areas

Towns, defined as population clusters of at least 5,000 inhabitants and a density of at least 300 people per square kilometer, are the most common settlement type in 71 countries as diverse as Germany, India, Uganda, and the United States. They connect rural areas and cities, offering essential services and supporting local economies.

Rural areas remain the most common settlement type in 62 countries today, down from 116 in 1975. By 2050, this number is projected to decline further to 44 countries. Rural settlements still dominate in some countries in Europe including Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, and Romania, as well as in numerous countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Mozambique and Zambia. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where rural populations have continued to grow significantly, and the region is expected to account for nearly all future rural population growth.

“The United Nations underscores the pivotal role of urbanization in driving sustainable development and climate resilience across all settlement types,” said Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “Urbanization is a defining force of our time. When managed inclusively and strategically, it can unlock transformative pathways for climate action, economic growth, and social equity. To achieve balanced territorial development, countries must adopt integrated national policies that align housing, land use, mobility, and public services across urban and rural areas.”

The World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results provides a critical evidence base for policymakers, planners, and researchers working to shape sustainable, inclusive, and resilient urban futures. For more information, visit population.un.org.

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 battle for sustainability will be won or lost in our cities. It’s where the majority of the global population lives, works and consumes. Recognizing and sharing best practices can help expedite the process.

Copenhagen, Denmark, for example, has earned many awards for its eco-culture. Its extensive cycling infrastructure, for example, is impossible to ignore. Queen Louise’s Bridge is the busiest cycling route in Europe, with an estimated 35,000 cyclists crossing during rush hour. Visitors can rent an electric bike to for that immersive experience.

The city converts waste into energy to supply tens of thousands of homes and businesses. All buses are changing from diesel to electric, while more and more road surfaces are devoted to cycling. The city plans to become carbon-neutral by 2025.

Like any green city, Copenhagen values parks, green spaces and grass roofs that filter rainwater and insulate buildings. More than two-thirds of the city’s hotels hold an eco-certificate. The city features vending machines that pay people for depositing aluminum cans and other recyclable materials.

To find the world’s most sustainable cities, Resonance ranked cities by nine different factors, including public green spaces, renewable energy sources, public transportation, walkability, recycling, composting, water consumption and air quality. According to those criteria, the greenest cities in the world are:

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Munich, Germany
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Madrid, Spain
5. São Paulo, Brazil
6. Manchester, United Kingdom
7. Lisbon, Portugal
8. Singapore
9. Amsterdam, Netherlands
10. Washington, D.C.

What makes Vienna such a green city?

It generates 30 percent of its total energy from renewable sources, while half of its population uses public transportation to commute to work. Its devotion to public green spaces, citywide recycling and composting programs, and 135 farmers’ markets are part of the city’s best practices.

All 180 countries from Albania to Zimbabwe graded by The 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) on 32 key sustainability indicators. The EPI scores were based on the latest data on critical things such as air and water quality, waste management, CO2 emissions, and other public health factors.

The world’s greenest countries are all in Europe, according to researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, who rank the world’s nations on eco-friendliness every two years.

Denmark, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Germany top the list. As these nations know, greener cities are more competitive, more efficient and healthier cities.

Denmark has developed strong policies against greenhouse gas emissions. The country also promotes biodiversity, wildlife habitat and clean air.

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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Experts say that the battle against climate change will be won or lost in our cities. China hopes to win the battle with sponge cities that embrace and utilize natural systems to manage water, cleanse the air and produce food.

Landscape architect Dr. Yu Kongjian thinks cities can do a better job of being less at odds with nature and their surrounding environments. In response, he advocates the creation of “sponge cities.”

A “sponge city” is one that is designed to retain, clean, and reuse stormwater. Unlike concrete pavements that separate water from the natural ecosystem, sponge cities utilize natural wetlands to absorb water into the soil before it can flow into urban streets, therefore providing a water-resilient threshold. In the past two decades, the model has gained huge support in his home country of China, and today Yu and his team have completed some 500 sponge city projects in cities around the world.

When Yu returned to China in 1997 after receiving his PhD from Harvard, he observed that flooding was becoming increasingly prevalent across Chinese cities. He resolved to experiment with new ways to deal with flooding, while also borrowing from time-tested “peasant farming techniques.” He cites irrigation systems such as mulberry fish ponds as examples of how ancient China used nature-based approaches to solve ecological problems.

Although the majority of sponge city projects draw from the same model, each project has a different focus.

In China’s northeastern city of Harbin, for example, Yu and his team revitalized a dying wetland surrounded by roads and big development projects in the city’s center. Using a cut-and-fill strategy to create ponds and mud flats around the existing wetlands, his studio transformed the area into a landscape that lives in concert with its surroundings and can simultaneously solve urban flooding problems, as well as increasing biodiversity. Named the Harbin Qunli National Urban Wetland, the project received an award from the American Society of Landscape Architects — one of the highest honors in the field.

Another ASLA accredited project, Shanghai Houtan Park, transformed a former industrialized site into a water treatment center, which cleans up to 634,000 gallons of water daily from Shanghai’s Huangpu River. Using “reclaimed industrial structures and materials, constructed wetlands and urban agriculture,” Houtan Park serves as both an aesthetically stimulating environment for those who live in the city and an innovative water management ecosystem. Today it functions as a permanent public space, after initially accommodating visitors as part of the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Not long after the completion of these projects, Yu’s model began to attract international attention and Turenscape was soon receiving commissions from overseas. One of their more celebrated international designs — Kaban Lake Waterfront Project in Kazan, Russia — profoundly changed an abandoned urban landfill into a neighborhood park. Completed within a year, the park attracts more than 50,000 visitors daily.

Part of Yu’s success in China has been his ability to have the ears of the country’s top leadership. After being implemented as an integral part of China’s “ecological civilization” movement — which effectively made sustainability part of nationwide urban planning policy — Yu says that the model was more quickly implemented into a wider range of projects. He adds that he has delivered over 300 lectures to mayors around China, and a book documenting the subsequent conversations with these figures has been reprinted over 15 times. The book was later published in English as Letters to the Leaders of China: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City in 2018.

The sponge city model has transformed China in other ways as well. Professionally, it has helped redefine urban landscape architecture by presenting ways of working across different disciplines — hydrology, landscape, and engineering, to name three. These practices have also aided the improvement of national codes in China, for which Yu himself has joined the revision force.

Because of Yu’s approach to restoring natural systems over man-made concrete and pipelines, as well as his advocacy for “negative planning” — a term he invented for putting green spaces at the core of city planning — he has been attacked by some critics within China that call him an “American spy” that “betrays Chinese culture and industrialization.”

“They resist changing the intellectual infrastructure,” says Yu. “We are moving towards a new way of life, but are still struggling with these old intellectual systems.”

He hopes that sponge cities can have a much-needed impact in developing countries — especially in southeast Asia, where flooding is more frequent partly because of seasonal heavy rain and the region’s tropical climate. “I am confident that, if you ask me what China can contribute to global issues, the sponge city concept is one of them,” he says.

In addition to sponge cities, Yu recently launched a pilot project promoting sustainable lifestyles in a remote village in the area surrounding Huangshan, a popular mountain in eastern China’s Anhui province. The project, called Wangshan Life, is a self-sufficient commune offering an alternative to inner-city life but also a means for revitalizing rural communities. “Here I’m exploring a new way of building,” says Yu. “We have renovated some village buildings, changed these buildings into hotels, schools, a forum, a bookstore. People here are so happy.”

Concepts such as Dr. Yu’s sponge city model challenge us to rethink our relationship with nature.

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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Towns and cities in the world’s developing countries are growing on an unprecedented scale. Ten years ago, an estimated 40 percent of the developing world’s population – or 2 billion people – lived in urban areas. Since then, their numbers have expanded almost twice as fast as total population growth, to more than 2.5 billion. That is the equivalent to almost five new cities the size of Beijing, every 12 months. By 2025, more than half the developing world’s population – 3.5 billion people – will be urban.

While urbanization in Europe and North America took centuries, spurred on by industrialization and steady increases in per capita income, in the developing world it will occur in the space of two or three generations. In many developing countries, urban growth is being driven not by economic opportunity but by high birth rates and a mass influx of rural people seeking to escape hunger, poverty and insecurity.

Most of the world’s fastest growing cities are found in low-income countries of Asia and Africa with young populations. Over the next 10 years, the current number of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow by almost 45 percent, from 320 million to 460 million. Kinshasa, capital of one of the world’s poorest countries, is now the world’s fastest growing future megacity. By 2025, the urban population of least-developed countries in Asia will have grown from 90 million to a projected 150 million, and Dhaka is expected to be the world’s fifth largest city, with 21 million inhabitants.

Urbanization in low-income countries is accompanied by high levels of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity. Worldwide, an estimated one billion people live in crowded slums, without access to basic health, water and sanitation services. Around 30 percent of the developing world’s urban population – 770 million people – are unemployed or “working poor”, with incomes below official poverty lines.

Those urban poor spend most of their income just to feed themselves. Yet their children suffer levels of malnutrition that are often as high as those found in rural areas. To survive, millions of slum dwellers have resorted to growing their own food on every piece of available land: in backyards, along rivers, roads and railways, and under power lines.

The growth of urban slums outpaces urban growth by a wide margin. By 2020, the proportion of the urban population living in poverty could reach 45 percent, or 1.4 billion people. By then, 85 percent of poor people in Latin America, and almost half of those in Africa and Asia, will be concentrated in towns and cities.

That prospect has been described as “the new population bomb” and a nightmare for governance: sprawling, degraded and impoverished cities with large, vulnerable populations that are socially excluded, young and unemployed.

Greener Cities Matter

A brighter future for the world’s developing cities is both imperative and possible. Historically, cities have been places not of misery and despair but of opportunity – for economies of scale, employment and improved living standards, especially for rural people seeking a better life. They have served as engines of social progress and national economic development.

Creating the conditions to realize that potential – in Kinshasa, Dhaka and other growing towns and cities across the developing world – is crucial now and will be more so in the decades ahead. The challenge is to steer urbanization from its current, unsustainable path, towards sustainable, greener cities that offer their inhabitants choice, opportunity and hope.

The concept of green cities–designed for resilience, self-reliance, and social, economic and environmental sustainability — is usually associated with urban planning in more developed countries. It suggests high-tech eco-architecture, bicycle greenways and zero-waste, “closed loop” industries.

However, it has a special application, and significantly different social and economic dimensions, in low-income developing countries. There, the core principles of greener cities can guide urban development that ensures food security, decent work and income, a clean environment and good governance for all citizens.

A starting point for growing greener cities is to recognize and integrate into urban policy and planning many of the creative solutions that the urban poor themselves have developed to strengthen their communities and improve their lives. One of those solutions – and an essential feature of green city planning in developed, and a growing number of developing, countries – is urban and peri-urban horticulture.

Urban and peri-urban horticulture (or UPH) is the cultivation of a wide range of crops – including fruit, vegetables, roots, tubers and ornamental plants – within cities and towns and in their surrounding areas. It is estimated that 130 million urban residents in Africa and 230 million in Latin America engage in agriculture, mainly horticulture, to provide food for their families or to earn income from sales.

While the urban poor, particularly those arriving from rural areas, have long practiced horticulture as a livelihood and survival strategy, in many countries the sector is still largely informal, usually precarious and sometimes illegal. But that is changing rapidly.

Over the past decade, governments in 20 countries have sought FAO’s assistance in removing barriers and providing incentives, inputs and training to low-income “city farmers”, from the burgeoning metropolises of West and Central Africa to the low-income barrios of Managua, Caracas and Bogotá.

Through multidisciplinary projects, FAO has helped governments and city administrations to optimize policies, institutional frameworks and support services for UPH, and to improve horticultural production systems. It has promoted irrigated commercial market gardening on urban peripheries, simple hydroponic micro-gardens in slum areas, and green rooftops in densely populated city centers.

The FAO program, and similar initiatives by partner organizations, have demonstrated how horticulture helps empower the urban poor, and contributes to their food security and nutrition. But it can also help grow greener cities that are better able to cope with social and environmental challenges, from slum improvement and management of urban wastes to job creation and community development.

Read More About Greener Cities.

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 battle against global warming and climate change will be won or lost in our cities. Cities are the capitals of consumption and power.

To promote greener cities, the Urban Sustainability Framework (USF), launched by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), serves as a guide for cities seeking to enhance their sustainability.

Launched at the ninth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9) in Kuala Lumpur, this guide supports cities along the sustainability pathway, from creating a vision to identifying financial resources to implement their plans.

The USF lays out six key dimensions of urban sustainability:

• governance and integrated planning,
• fiscal sustainability,
• economic competitiveness,
• environment and resource efficiency,
• low carbon and resilience, and
• social inclusiveness. 

The Framework is a collaboration among cities, organizations, and experts who have contributed to the development of the Framework.

Cities can understand their urban sustainability by using indicators that help track their progress toward sustainability goals.

The USF is part of a larger collaboration for knowledge exchange on sustainable urban planning. Financed by the GEF and led by the World Bank, the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities was launched in March 2016. It was designed to meet the need for an enabling environment – a platform – that allows cities to exchange ideas, share experiences, use analytical tools, and, most importantly, steer investment toward long-term sustainability.

The GPSC assists cities in tapping into cutting-edge knowledge and expertise on topics ranging from urban planning to low-carbon strategy, transit-oriented development, and sustainable financing. Together with various partners in the urban realm, the GPSC is creating a suite of knowledge products and tools that will help cities drive their development agenda. The platform currently includes 28 cities from 11 countries.

An important collaborator joined the platform at WUF9 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city of Aarhus, Denmark, and the World Bank. Through the MOU, Denmark’s second largest city becomes a knowledge partner of the GPSC.

“We definitely have worthwhile experiences to share with our peers, and likewise hope to learn from others to improve the city’s sustainability,” said Jacob Bundsgaard, Mayor of Aarhus.

GPSC and Aarhus will be collaborating in the following areas:

1. sustainable, integrated planning strategies;
2. low carbon development towards the goal of carbon neutrality;
3. adaptation and resilience; and
4. water management

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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On behalf of UNDP, welcome to the launch of the UNDP Sustainable Urbanization Strategy. As we meet here in Quito today for the Habitat III conference, we are also celebrating the International Day for Poverty Eradication.

Many of the world’s poor now live in cities where the most pressing development challenges are found. In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we need to ensure that the urban poor are not left behind.

The New Urban Agenda, which is due to be adopted here at Habitat III, aims to ensure that the cities of today and tomorrow offer an inclusive and sustainable future for all. The UNDP Sustainable Urbanization Strategy lays out the support which UNDP as a global development organization can provide to help achieve that.

Around our world, people are moving to cities in very large numbers.  Cities are seen as places of opportunity and hope, where hard work and determination can transform lives.

UNDP has developed its sustainable urbanization strategy to support cities to deliver on the hopes of their citizens and to implement the New Urban Agenda. Many people in cities, particularly young people, lack work and say they currently feel excluded from opportunities. For women and girls, cities can be dangerous places where they cannot walk in safety and may risk exploitation in dangerous and demeaning jobs.  Natural disasters – including those exacerbated by climate change – and conflict and citizen insecurity can turn back the clock on hard won development gains.

UNDP’s experiences of working in towns and cities around the world have shaped this first UNDP sustainable urbanization strategy, and will guide our efforts beyond Quito.

Allow me to share three of our lessons learned:

1. For cities to be succeed, they need to meet the needs of all their residents. Truly dynamic cities make space for all, and serve the needs of all.  Inclusivity is one of the main principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which UN Member States pledged to leave no one behind. The needs and aspirations of poor and marginalized people in the world’s cities must be addressed to fulfill that ambition.
2. Cities must be resilient to natural and man-made disasters and crises. Urban areas are now home to more than half the world’s people, and they also host most of the world’s critical infrastructure, key development assets, political institutions, and major socio-economic architecture. If disasters and crises rock cities, the spillover effects are great. In the first half of 2016 alone, natural disasters caused US$71 billion in damages worldwide, with most economic loss concentrated in cities. Political instability and conflict also have major costs.
3. Cities are at the forefront of the battle against climate change and environmental degradation. They produce more than seventy percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and use eighty per cent of the world’s energy. How cities grow and develop in the coming decades will play a significant part in determining whether the world can live within its planetary boundaries.

Delivering the sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities of the future requires that we work together in partnership, as UNDP is committed to doing.

Our partnerships are diverse:

• Here in Ecuador, we have been part of the efforts to help local communities recover and rebuild in Manabí province following the 16 April earthquake this year.
• In Soacha, Colombia, a town close to Bogota, UNDP and UNCHR have been working together on a programme called Building Sustainable Solutions. It supports the local municipality with land registration and title, promoting economic development with the support of the private sector, and with community and institutional strengthening.
• In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, UNDP has worked with local community groups to improve access to municipal services.
• In Bangladesh, UNDP has supported municipal leaders to improve the livelihoods of millions of urban dwellers through our large scale Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction programme.
• Initiatives like these, taken to scale through partnerships and strong urban leadership, will be critical to implementing the New Urban Agenda and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Helen Clark is the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. She also chairs the United Nations Development Group.

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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Innovations in technology and environmental friendliness are not mutually exclusive — in fact, the smarter a city is, the more eco-friendly it can (and should) be. Since we’re always talking about the most well-connected smart cities, here is a list of cities that are doing great things for the planet, too.

These aren’t in any particular order, as they make various rankings every year on different lists by many organizations. There are some usual suspects, but hopefully, some cities that surprise you as well.

All 10 cities are notable for their recycling and composting programs, bike friendliness, sustainable construction, clean-tech advancements, and energy conservation.

Oslo, Norway

Several Scandinavian cities consistently rank as the greenest in the world, and one of them is Oslo, the most populous city in Norway. For many years, sustainable environmental practices have been part of this city’s plan. The government has a committee focused specifically on strategies for sustainable development, and aggressively protects wild, natural areas from development, which reduces its carbon footprint.

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is one of the cleanest cities in the world and has a lot of environmental planning initiatives. The city has a goal to be free of fossil fuels by 2050. According to research from HouseTrip, 93% of residents walk, bike, or take public transportation to work.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, with a great infrastructure built for bike routes. Amsterdam is also one of the cities that conserves the most water, according to HouseTrip research. The city also has an array of eco-friendly hotels. In 2014, Cisco signed an agreement with Amsterdam to make it a green and hyper-connected place, the “Internet of Everything” city and one of Cisco’s showcase metropolises.

Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver is known as one of the greenest cities in North America, and is definitely the most eco-friendly in Canada. The government enacted a Greenest City 2020 Action Plan several years ago, and though many people drive, it has plans to reduce its carbon emissions by 33% by 2020, and is a world leader in its use of hydropower.

Curitiba, Brazil

On the South American Siemens Index of green cities, this is the only South American city that ranks above average in eco-friendly rankings. Curitiba has long had a rapid-transit bus system and great recycling program, and plans to build a better bus system and more bike routes. Compared to other cities in the region, it’s faring pretty well for its carbon footprint.

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, Africa’s second largest city, is making some great progress environmentally. About five years ago, the country built its first wind farm, and has a goal of generating 10% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. It’s also very bike-friendly and has a lot of environmental initiatives in the communities.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen consistently ranks as Europe’s greenest city, with most residents living near and using public transportation, and half of them riding a bicycle for their commutes. Though it’s large in size, this makes the city’s carbon footprint relatively small. Citizens also compost and recycle, and work hard to conserve energy. Copenhagen has a plan to be carbon neutral by 2025.

San Francisco, California

Of course, San Francisco is one of the greenest cities in North America, with a 77% recycling rate and wide city regulations on recycling and composting. The city is extremely bike-friendly and is constantly ranked as one of the best cities for organic, sustainable food. The Bay Area is also the headquarters of many environmental and cleantech startups, an area of technology which is growing rapidly.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis has been on several green city lists throughout the past few years. The city has a program called Minnesota GreenStep Cities, which enacts sustainable practices and programs across the state. And with 92 miles of on-street bikeways and 85 miles of off-street paths, good air quality, and a nice park system, Minneapolis is both clean and eco-friendly and becoming more known for its energy conservation every year.

Freiburg, Germany

The city of Freiburg, Germany, which is on the edge of Black Forest close to Switzerland and France, has been on lists for green cities since 2008. Germany is a world leader in renewable energy, especially solar. Freiburg takes great measures to reduce energy consumption, particularly with residential homes. Apparently, home builders plan to use almost no energy and less than 40 gallons of oil to heat homes.

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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As chair of the Group of 77 and China, Fiji has called on world leaders to give urgent attention to the sustainability of cities. The message was relayed to world leaders at the United Nations in New York by Fiji’s Ambassador Peter Thomson in his address at the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals yesterday.

An Information Ministry statement yesterday said the subject under current debate by the OWG was Sustainable Cities, Human Settlement and Sustainable Transport. Thomson explained that the 133-member Group of 77’s approach to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post-2015 Development Agenda was firmly aimed at eradicating poverty and advancing sustainable development. 

He told the OWG that the grim reality of approximately one billion people living in urban slums highlighted the gravity of the challenges they faced.

Thomson said the Group of 77 encouraged governments and UN Habitat to use planned city extension methodologies to guide the sustainable development of cities in order to prevent slum proliferation, enhance access to basic urban services, support inclusive housing, enhance job opportunities and create a safe and healthy living environment for all urban dwellers.

He also pointed out that the world’s urban areas were expected to expand by 60 percent before 2030, representing unparalleled opportunities to transform the social and economic fabric of nations.

“Today 50 percent of the world’s seven billion people are urbanized, with projections showing that some 70 percent will live in cities by 2050,” he said.

He said the SDGs must address the multi-dimensional challenges of urban dwellers in order to provide access to basic services, improve the lives of slum dwellers, strengthen urban resilience and protect ecosystems.”

Thomson also called for interaction between nations at the international level, as well as between central and local governments at national levels, to fulfill their roles as governmental stakeholders on sustainability.

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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An updated set of standards in Dallas will ensure that city officials aren’t the only ones concerned with green building.

This month the city mandated that all residential and commercial projects must meet the minimum requirements of its Green Construction Code or be certifiable by organizations like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or Green Built Texas. Dallas established its green ordinance with the help of a task force five years ago, slowly rolling out additional layers—including energy, water and roof provisions—every so often for various structure types and sizes. The first phase began in 2009, while Phase 2 was initiated Oct. 1, though city council passed the ordinance last fall.

Dallas is among the first cities to enforce a green building code. California’s code kicks in Jan. 1, 2014, though some cities in the state, like San Francisco, have already enforced green codes.

Building permit seekers in Dallas now have to attend a six-hour training course and pass exams for both residential and commercial projects. Builders for either type of project also must provide documented experience in the design, construction, management or inspection of green projects.

Other requirements include a conflict-of-interest policy requiring a third party to review green building projects and compliance with LEED or the International Green Construction Code (IgCC).

Single family residential projects should meet the minimum requirements of International Code Council 700—the National Green Building Standard. Lots must be designed so that at least 70 percent of the built environment is permeable, according to an interpretation from Green Building Law Update. Projects must utilize drip irrigation for all “bedding areas” of landscaping.

The city first implemented a green building program a decade ago. There are about 144 LEED certified facilities in Dallas, according to the USGBC.

“The City of Dallas has a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, and this is one big step towards that goal,” Meredith Hunt, sustainability manager at Dallas-based T Howard & Associates, wrote in a blog. “Cities across the U.S. are beginning to adopt the 2012 IgCC, as a whole or in parts … As a new code to follow, there may be a few hiccups in the beginning, but we believe this is a great step forward by the City of Dallas.”

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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These days, the nation’s capital city — and the federal government in particular — is not known for getting things done. But the city itself has bold plans, including Mayor Vincent Gray’s Sustainable DC initiative, to be the greenest, healthiest and most livable city in the U.S.

As part of Sustainable DC, the city’s energy and sustainability office launched Build Smart DC on Thursday to provide transparency and accountability for the municipal building stock, and then make it as energy-efficient as possible.

And after laying bare all of its daily energy information, Washington, D.C. has set a goal of reducing the energy use in more than half of its 30 million-plus square feet of municipal facilities by 20 percent in twenty months.

“We’re trying to embrace truly transparent data to create tremendous savings,” said Sam Brooks, associate director of the city’s Energy & Sustainability office. “Our hope is that it’s nothing less than a groundbreaking and transformational initiative.”

Build Smart DC, which is powered by Honest Buildings, will have next-day interval data from all of Washington, D.C.’s 400-plus municipal buildings.

The city has already benchmarked its building stock with Energy Star scores, but “energy benchmarking is so 2010,” asserted Brooks. Instead, Build Smart DC will gather about 35,000 data points per building per year.

But getting access to interval data was not as easy as the city would have hoped. Although Pepco, the utility that serves the area, had deployed smart meters, it still took six to eight months of wrangling to get the data from the utility. At one point, the program administrators debated double metering the buildings to get the data, because every lost month was seen as lost energy — and money — savings. Washington, D.C. spends about $65 million annually in energy expenditures.

“The goal here is to eliminate energy waste and create effective cash flows back to the city,” said Brooks.

Some of the analytics will look for anomalies, such as schools that have heating or cooling systems staying on until 10 p.m. The data will also provide insight into which buildings need deeper retrofits. Brooks acknowledged that it’s a learning process all around. The administration has been engaging building stakeholders, and has asked each building to come up with an operational plan. Brooks said his team has engaged facility managers about the functionality of the website, but acknowledged they could have been brought in even earlier in the process.

Eventually, there will likely be competitions between buildings, which can be powered by Lucid, which partners with Honest Buildings. Ultimately, Brooks would like to expand the effort across the nation — and the globe. “In my utopia, there would be a Biggest Loser-type competition,” he said. The C40 Cities group would be the likely place to launch such an effort.

But for now, it’s a matter of cutting energy waste from the biggest offenders, all while documenting it online for the public to see.  “Embracing something like this takes real guts,” Brooks said of Mayor Vincent Gray. “He’s the guy that allows us to swing for the fences.”

Tracking and taking action on interval electricity use, however, is just the beginning. The platform could someday bring in building energy management data, and there are already plans to include natural gas, recycling and water data in the future. “Better, more robust data will bring efficiency,” said Brooks. “Culturally, you have an immediate change when you embrace transparency.”

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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