Mayors from Seoul to Seattle are stepping up plans to make their cities healthier in a global strategy to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and fight climate change.
Cities are the single-largest source of mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet. Many cities have already been investing in programmes to cut air pollution, such as tree planting and promoting more energy-efficient buildings.
But the pandemic and the huge stimulus packages announced by governments have led to calls to accelerate those investments. This is, in part, to create jobs but also to cut air pollution and make cities safer in a world where greater social distancing will be the norm.
For example, giving pedestrians more room by widening footpaths and expanding networks of cycling lanes.
Many cities facing lockdowns have already seen air pollution fall sharply, giving residents and administrators a vision of what a low-carbon future could be like.
Mayors and senior officials from 11 major cities worldwide have held talks to coordinate how they can promote an economic recovery that improves public health, reduces inequality and addresses the climate crisis.
They are part of the newly formed Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force, which is run by the C40 Cities network.
The cities represented last week included Hong Kong, Lisbon, Medellín, Milan, Melbourne, Seattle and Seoul. Their aim is to promote an economic recovery that gets people back to work, while preventing climate change from becoming an even bigger crisis by channelling investment away from dirty fossil fuels.
The leaders discussed measures ranging from retrofitting programmes to make buildings more energy- efficient to mass tree planting and investment in solar and wind power.
The C40 Cities network has been a key driver for the world’s cities to become more liveable and to cut greenhouse gas emissions and waste.
Nearly 100 cities are part of the network, Singapore included.
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Source: The Straits Times, 6 May 2020