City pangs

Cities are already responsible for more than 80 percent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions. By 2030, the world will have almost 5 billion city residents -- about 60 percent of the world's population.

So, it makes sense for cities to get smart and learn to build housing and transportation systems, ensure food and energy supplies, and deal with waste in a sustainable manner that cuts greenhouse-gas emissions.

Perhaps as a first step cities must know their emissions and have policies to lower these. At a recent meet, the attention was on C40's collaboration with International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) -- Local Governments for Sustainability -- to develop a standard for measuring city greenhouse-gas emissions.

ICLEI draws upon the expertise of World resources Institute in this regard. WRI has begun developing a city-level emissions accounting framework tailored for China. WRI's city framework will measure both direct and indirect emissions. This means that emissions from goods and services produced and consumed by city residents would be included in a city's emissions assessment.

Then there are the BRT systems which lowers commuting time and also reduces emissions! A step ahead, inspired by IPCC's recent report that renewable energy could provide 80 percent of the world's energy by 2050, how about distributed on-site solar that sees solar panels on individual homes? To make the installation and financing easy, WRI has been looking at collaborative solar financing for a group or community.

Surely, there are many ways cities can lead the way in becoming climate champions. All it takes is some innovative thinking and a visionary leadership.

Cities getting hotter

More concrete, more steel, skyscrapers reconfiguring wind, less trees and soils loaded with asphalt and vehicles - all this leads to more heat trapped in cities.

This stored heat will only get worse with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, says Mark McCarthy, lead author and a research scientist with the Climate Impacts team at the Met Office, the United Kingdom's weather service. The research finds that "urban areas are warming faster" than rural ones, in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide.

In a world with carbon dioxide concentrations of 645 ppm, cities such as Los Angeles; Tehran, Iran; and Delhi, India, will experience about three times as many hot nights than in one with half as much carbon dioxide.

Their models predict that urban daytime temperatures will rise by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit in most parts of the world when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reach 645 parts per million, a figure possible as early as 2050. By then, more than 68 percent of the world's population will reside within urban areas -- up from 50 percent in 2009.

Plan to check out that suburban land you almost thought of buying??

Check your fridge

Take a deep breath before you read this! According to the University of Western Sydney's Urban Research Centre, Sydney households throw out more than $600 million worth of fresh produce every year - and that does not include leftovers, which account for another $182 million in the bin. This can feed a small African nation while garbage bins can sustain a family or two.

The $603 million fresh food waste is close to the $660 million combined income of all the farms in the metropolitan basin.

This is for sure not restricted to Sydney but all rich consumer societies everywhere! Fresh food, vegetables and fruits and meat, is bought with good intentions but busy lives take over and people end up eating out more than at home. Three weeks later it is time to clean up the fridge of all ‘biological experiments’!

Sydney residents spent about $6.5 billion last year - or more than a third of total household food and beverage budgets - on takeaway, alcohol or dining out, which was 36 times what they spent on fresh vegetables grown within the basin.

Local produce and organic food lose significance. That is where community pooling up makes sense. The buying power of supermarket chains that do not rely on local produce works against the farmers.

Much as people are aware of the benefits of fresh food, the luxuries of life which include hours of watching television robs all good intentions. And you have all the food going down the drain. With that goes so much energy and water used to produce them.

How much food goes waste in your homes? What do we need to do? Buy less? Cook more often and in small measures?

In this connection, check out this interesting video that talks about how our food supplies shaped cities. From ancient times when certain markets were located based on how easy it was to get food to those areas to how cities expanded with the advent of trains, Steel shows us how urban planning revolves really around how we eat.

And more importantly, how we eat could be made more healthy and sustainable by a revisioning of cityscapes. Cities need to be revamped for sustainable, independent food supplies, for decreased reliance on fossil-fueled transportation and increased walk and bike-friendliness, and for energy efficiency.