PLEA Network

5 May 2016, The Guardian, We’ve been mayors of New York, Paris and Rio. We know climate action starts with cities. The Paris climate agreement, already signed by more than 175 countries, was successful in large part because national governments recognized cities’ progress in reducing carbon emissions. On Thursday, as world leaders gather in Washington DC to discuss how to reach the goals set in Paris, they should focus on helping cities do even more, and act faster, to reduce those emissions. Cities account for most of the world’s carbon emissions, and their share will continue to increase as cities increase in size. Today more than half of the world lives in cities, and by 2050, two-thirds will. Every day, the world’s cities grow by about 60 square kilometers – an area equal to New York City’s borough of Manhattan. How that growth takes shape in the next few years will determine whether we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and it will also have major economic and public health implications. Cities planned around affordable mass transit expand economic opportunity while cleaning the air we breathe. Smart buildings and land use save energy and protect people from extreme weather events, helping cities avoid enormous potential costs. Read More here