Cities

WHAT'S NEXT?: Smart cities are the talk of the town right now and so they should be to cope when over 60% of us will live in cities by 2030. E-bikes, Driverless- connected vehicles, buildings that talk to each other will help but many cities are susceptible to climate change and pandemics. Explore the issues faced by cities and the new ideas that will change the way urban dwellers live in the 21st century.

[New] At the beginning of the year, Toyota announced Woven City, a city that will serve as a living laboratory to help create an ever-better way of life centered on people and mobility for all.
[New] Greater Manchester leaders are unveiling a clear single vision supported by three complimentary plans that will accelerate the city-region' s 2038 zero carbon ambitions, build a greener economy and deliver a long-term plan for development.
[New] Rapid urbanization could push more mosquitoes to bite humans in many cities across sub-Saharan Africa over the next 30 years.
[New] The City of Vancouver has set the target of reducing embodied carbon emissions in new buildings and construction projects by 40% compared to a 2018 baseline by 2030.
[New] Near-term climate change will not drive selection for major changes in mosquitoes preference, but that rapid urbanization could drive a shift to human-biting in many cities across sub-Saharan Africa by 2050.
[New] Rapid urbanization currently taking place in Africa will drive further mosquito evolution, causing a shift toward human-biting in many large cities by 2050.
[New] Combined with population changes, 20-50 times as many people could be exposed to dangerous heat in African cities by the end of the century.
[New] Forward leaning cities from Seattle to Singapore to London are expected to spend nearly $124 billion in 2020 on smart city initiatives, an increase of 18.9% from 2019.
Since 80% of global food consumption in 2050 is expected to come from cities, food systems transformation is needed by city networks such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group - a group of 94 cities around the world that have committed to action on both mitigation and adaptation.
The continued commitment to a net-zero emissions trajectory will be critical to the UK's economic and environmental wellbeing in the coming years, including not only sustainable growth but also cities where we can move and breathe and ecosystems which are robust and fruitful.
The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 2.1 billion urban residents, with over two-third estimated to be living in cities by 2050.
Mexico City is planning for an additional 80 miles of temporary bike infrastructure to alleviate the risks of public transport in a city of more than 21 million people.
Sixteen Rolls-Royce-backed reactors, each able to power a city the size of Leeds, could be built by 2050.
The City of Sydney - the central business district of Sydney and its surrounding inner city suburbs - will now be powered using 100% renewable energy, a switch forecast to save half a million dollars and 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere over the next 10 years.
In response to the ongoing climate and environmental crisis Nottingham has set an ambition to become the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028.
The City of Sydney has been carbon neutral since 2007, and now that it's running on 100% renewables, will likely reduce emissions by 70% by 2024 - six years earlier than its goal of 2030.
As Colorado Springs grows during the next three decades, it will possibly become Colorado's largest city, with demand projected to push 1,200 megawatts (1.2 gigawatts) at mid-century.
Other Canadian cities will soon see Lime scooters hit their streets, with cities in Ontario and British Columbia launching pilot programs later this year.
The Investment Association, which represents City fund manager with a combined £7.7 tn worth of assets, warned companies last year to publish credible plans to cut retirement packages down to size by 2022.
As of 2018, people living in towns and cities constitute 55% of the world's population, three quarters of whom reside in the global South, where more than 90% of urban population growth in the next few decades is also projected to take place.
Fresh geopolitical concerns are adding new sources of downside risk for the market to grapple with, headlined by an increasingly tense U.S.-China relationship and an increasingly tense situation across major U.S. cities.
Developments in the packaging industry are expected to remain less dynamic in the coming years; more than 100 cities in the U.S. and Canada and some in Europe and Asia are seeking to completely ban styrofoam containers owing to their extremely slow biodegradable nature.
Recognizing cities as engines of growth, Uzbekistan has set sustainable urbanization as a priority agenda, with the goal of increasing its urbanization level to 60% by 2030.

See full forecast

Last updated: 01 August 2020