Green Cities: The Critical Undervalued Issue

By Samantha from Lyon, France - Runner up in the Article Competition

Most of the worlds population live in cities. I live in a city - Lyon and I love it. Europe has beautiful old cities full of culture but like my apartment - I think a lot is outdated. Bad insulation, outdated plumbing, electricity and more. Cities use a lot of energy and water - and with inefficient systems a lot of it is wasted when it doesn't have to be. Cities are places full of traffic, pollution and noise. There is nothing natural about them. Where there once were trees and fields are now concrete and buildings.

UN-Habitat has outlined that urban areas generate more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions and use most of our energy. At the moment most people live in cities, and in the next 20 years it is expected that 2 out of every 3 people will be living in a city. So it is fair to say that what happens in cities is going to have a massive impact on the environment and the future of the planet.

So why is all the attention focused on other areas and not so much on cities and making them green? There are incredible examples of the technology that can be used. Why aren't we doing much more to make our cities 'green'?

The Technology

What do you think of when someone says 'green city'? Is it plants growing on walls? Robots keeping it clean and everything powered by solar panels? That is not that far off what is possible.

Lets start with the easy one: energy. Solar Panels are not new - they have been around for so long we all know about them and a lot of us probably use them. Yet when I look around my city - I don't see enough of them. Buildings can use solar panels, heat pumps, solar water boilers (look at cities like Athens where there are solar boilers on nearly every roof) and more efficient appliances. Energy grids can be improved to create less waste.

So on the energy front its possible for sure - what about that pollution and traffic? Electric buses and trains already exist and you can see them in most cities. Most have emission zones with restrictions on the type of polluting vehicles allowed. Maybe we can learn from the Netherlands and embrace public transport and bicycles instead of cars. Make our cities healthier to live in and less polluting - and make ourselves healthier too!

What about water? Cities use huge amounts of water and in a lot of places like the UK there are many leaks and issues and thousands of liters of water are wasted on a daily basis. So we can improve the water infrastructure - use sensors to find leaks before too much water is lost. Use systems for recycling water and re-using it. And - unlike a lot of countryside near where I live, where people collect rainwater to use in their gardens - in cities there is nothing.

UN-Habitat has outlined that certain tech, including smart grids, waste-management monitoring and climate monitoring, are important ways to improve our efficiency in how we consume and use resources. So this isn't really a question of if the technology exists. It does! So why are we not using it? Cities should have targets so that we can slowly start working towards 'green cities'.

But technology is not even everything right? Have you felt the difference in a city with lots of trees and those with very few? In terms of how they smell, feel and are to live in? So it really is not that hard to make a city literally 'greener' - plant more trees, prioritize green spaces like parks. Start using green roofs (they even look super-cool).

UN-Habitat calls these "nature-based solutions", and they can have a massive impact. Trees and vegetation can make cities cooler, green spaces can help with biodiversity and bring in more animal life and insect life to the city.

Because cities are becoming hotter and more vulnerable to extreme weather. Maybe we should be going backwards rather than forwards and work with nature rather than build over the top of it.

And I think there is something cool about that. Cities can become places where nature and technology actually work together to make beautiful spaces for the future. Healthier for the people and the environment. Without losing the culture and the history that makes our cities in Europe so unique.

So where are all the 'Green Cities'?

This was what made me want to write this article - because WTF. How much money is spent on so many things but it feels like in this regards - which is really important - not much is happening. If governments know cities need to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and if many of the technologies already exist, where are they?

Part of the answer is money. But the other part comes down to politics. Politicians are elected and want to be elected again. They like quick wins and are not in it for the long run. Politicians could learn something from the old Arabic proverb about planting date palms:

“He who plants dates does not harvest them himself".

The benefits of making these crucial investments in cities might take years or decades to really be visible and politicians don't like that. A new road can be opened before they run for the next election and is an obvious benefit. A tree planted today can live for hundreds of years but there is little obvious benefit. Improving the water system might solve or prevent problems that people never see or think about and that is not good for a politician.

Should we not make it part of the system that politicians need to focus on long-term things too? They need to let go of their egos and think about planting that date tree.

So maybe the biggest problem isn't technology. It is implementation and political will and maybe a sprinkling of money issues. I also don't think we need to turn every city into some sci-fi futuristic utopia. We need to take the technology, infrastructure and knowledge we already have available to us and actually use it.

We can build huge buildings that touch the face of God. The phones we have in our pockets are more powerful than the computers that sent people to the Moon. So we can absolutely achieve this and yet we still have cities where people sit in traffic for hours polluting the air, water disappears through leaking pipes, green spaces disappear under concrete and public transport doesn't work properly.

That isn't because we don't have the technology. It is because we have decided not to use it. And if cities really are where so much of our environmental future will be decided, then maybe the question isn't "Can we build green cities?" We already can.

The question is:

Why aren't we building more of them?