Cities

• The world's unprecedented shift in demographic trends means that almost all population growth projected by 2050 will be in the urban areas of less developed countries.
• The number of food insecure people reached 7.7 million in Zimbabwe in the first quarter of 2020, and WFP projects 8.6 million people to be food insecure by the end of 2020 (3.3 million in urban areas).
• The waste management investments in US cities are expected to grow from 1.0 waste management in the cities USA: billion US-Dollar in 2018 to 1.7 billion US-Dollar by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4% during the forecast period.
• London growth perspectives are supported by the City of London's ambition to be a zero carbon city by 2050, notably with the aim of increasing tenfold the number of charge points within five years.
• New Delhi, a city of about 22 million people where air conditioning already accounts for more than half of all summertime electricity use, could go from about six months per year averaging 32 °C as of 1960 to eight months by 2100.
• FAO Green Cities Initiative aims to improve the livelihoods and well-being of urban and peri-urban populations in at least 100 cities (15 metropolitan, 40 intermediary and 45 small cities) around the world in the next three years, looking to have 1000 cities join by 2030.
• With air pollution and climate change being named by the World Health Organisation as one of the top ten threats to global health, an important goal for smart cities is to lower emissions.
• China plans to expand its railway network, the second largest in the world, by one-third in the next decade and a half, as part of a long-term plan to rev up urbanisation and stimulate local economies.
• By 2025, India will have seven cities with more than 10 million population and a city of 10 million people requires 6,000 tonnes of food per day.
• More than 2.5 billion more people will be added to cities by 2050, mostly in relatively lower income cities in Africa and Asia.
• More cities are adopting low emission or clean air zones in the UK, with nine new English and Scottish cities set to introduce them in early 2021 and around 70 councils throughout the UK considering similar measures.
• By midcentury, rising seas and greater storm surges could force hundreds of millions of people from homes and cost coastal urban areas more than $1 trillion a year.
• York City Council is ploughing ahead with plans for a car-free zone by 2023 after launching the UK's first voluntary clean air zone in part of the city earlier in 2020, applying only to buses.
• Alongside the ECAP, City Council adopted a carbon neutrality target to formalize Oakland's commitment to achieving a zero-carbon local economy by 2045.
• By the end of 2020, there could be more than a dozen clean air zones in Britain, with many imposing charges on older diesel cars that are driven into city centres.
• By 2050, Bangladesh's large cities may become the first in the world to experience heatwaves that exceed the survivability threshold - where conditions become dangerous even in the shade - if greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at current levels.
• Foodtrails funded by the European Commission, it will focus on implementing new urban food systems and help to address food insecurity across 11 European cities.
• The world's population will grow by 0.5 billion between 2019 and 2025, with growth concentrated in urban areas.
• More than 600 million people or 60% of the population living in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity an Africa's population is projected to double over the next 30 years to over 2 billion and 50% of Africans will potentially be living in cities by 2030.
• The African Clean Cities Platform is the regional chapter of the WWC programme, and strives to achieve clean and healthy cities in Africa by 2030.
• Up to 80% of the global population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050, presenting sustainability strategists with a huge challenge.
• Both the City of Portland and Multnomah County have adopted resolutions establishing a goal of 100% renewable energy to replace natural gas communitywide by 2050.

Last updated: 04 October 2020