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Identify a handful of adjacent city blocks, restrict traffic to the perimeter, and make the interior for walking, biking, and green space. A new study finds it could work even in cities with an irregular street grid.
It’s a popular idea that the path to sustainability lies in high-tech solutions. By making everyday items like cars electric, and installing smart systems to monitor and reduce energy use, it seems we’ll still be able to enjoy the comforts to which we’ve become accustomed while doing our bit for the planet – a state known as “green growth”.
A proposal for a new city in China is designed to be as green as possible—and also make it easy to isolate in the case of another outbreak.
From the covid-19 to a sustainable economy When talking to people these days who are concerned about global warmingand sustainability as central challenges, I often encounter worried faces and gloomy forecasts: Once the COVID-19pandemic has been brought under control, they fear, politicians will again do everything in their power to stimulate resource-consuming economic growth in every conceivable way. Longer-termecological goals will once again be in danger of being undermined,just as they were following the financial crisis in 2008. https://www.greenhousethinktank.org/uploads/4/8/3/2/48324387/from_the_covid-19_crisis_to_a_sustainable_economy_r_loske.pdf
A doughnut cooked up in Oxford will guide Amsterdam out of the economic mess left by the coronavirus pandemic.
While straining to keep citizens safe in the Dutch capital, municipality officials and the British economist Kate Raworth from Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute have also been plotting how the city will rebuild in a post-Covid-19 world.
The conclusion? Out with the global attachment to economic growth and laws of supply and demand, and in with the so-called doughnut model devised by Raworth as a guide to what it means for countries, cities and people to thrive in balance with the planet.
The Handbook of Sustainable Urban Development Strategies provides methodological support to cities, managing authorities and other stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of urban strategies under Cohesion Policy. In particular, it refers to Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) as supported by the European Regional Development Fund during the current programming period (2014-2020) and the upcoming one (2021-2027).
The Handbook is a policy learning tool, adaptable to the needs arising from different territorial and administrative contexts. It considers urban strategies as bridges between Cohesion Policy and local territorial governance systems.
This booklet is a beginner’s guide to how to become a greener and more sustainable city. It is based on the advice and recommendations of experts in urban planning who are from cities that have actually made the transition to sustainability. It also contains the latest knowledge and expertise from relevant experts in environmental legislation from the European Commission, as well as those involved in managing European funding opportunities for cities, and those who know about EU knowledge sharing networks and research.
This is the question that a case called Juliana, et al. v. United States has thrown like a crowbar into the American legal system.
A European sustainability pact, massive investments and the EU's full regulatory power will be needed to address the climate crisis, writes Michel Barnier
As the campaign for the European elections gets underway, the focus is on the make-up of the electoral lists, and on the status of the environment and the ecological transition in the minds of the electorate and in the priorities of programs. However, attention should also be given to the diplomatic action that Europe must adopt at the international level to address global environmental issues in all their aspects.
The Cork Papers - Sustainable City in the Making, curated and edited by Angela Brady, is a collection of essays intended to act as a critical analysis of the city from the perspect
The one planet life lets you find pleasure in living in a home that emits no pollution, in eating food you have grown or which is fresh and local and living within the fair means of the planet – let us show you how.
At a time when many claim to be “citizens of the world” or retreat into naive or hypocritical protectionism, Pitron’s book is an attempt to open people’s eyes to the consequences of their societal choices and lifestyles. “Nothing will radically change unless we experience – in our own back yard – the full cost of our standard of living. It’s always better to have a responsible mine at home than an irresponsible mine abroad. Such a choice is green, altruistic, and courageous – and in keeping with the responsible ethos advocated by many environmental groups. And it is how an alignment of our economic model and the values espoused in, for example, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will actually be achievable.
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Most modern cities depend on quality urban planning to direct their growth and development, and to best cope with the challenges they face. Lack of urban planning usually leads to wild, unplanned sprawl which creates a host of problems, ranging from lack of infrastructure to high vulnerability to any kind of disruption. Good urban planning can help cities become greener, more resilient, more efficient, healthier, and a nicer place to live with rich cultural offerings and stronger community core.
The EEA report identifies several key building blocks for improving cities’ sustainability, including improving the quality of the local environment, building adaptive capacity, ensuring enough public and natural areas, switching to renewable energy, and improving energy and resource efficiency. Moreover, cities should improve the quality of the built environment, including homes, and ensure social justice and inclusive participation in decision-making. While all cities are both complex and different from each other, the report identifies some shared key factors for improving their sustainability. Local culture, knowledge and quality of data can either enable or slow down improvements, and the same is true for new technology, governance, and financial management.
Authorities around the world are putting UN Sustainable Development Goal at the core of their agenda but including local governments in their implementation is key for success, writes Tine Soens.
Today is the launch of the Amsterdam City Doughnut, which takes the global concept of the Doughnut and turns it into a tool for transformative action in the city of Amsterdam. It’s also the first public presentation of the holistic approach to ‘downscaling the Doughnut’ that an international team of us have been developing for more than a year. We never imagined that we would be launching it in a context of crisis such as this, but we believe that the need for such a transformative tool could hardly be greater right now, and its use in Amsterdam has the chance to inspire many more places – from neighbourhoods and villages to towns and cities to nations and regions – to take such a holistic approach as they begin to reimagine and remake their own futures.
Climate actions have often fallen into one of two strategies: mitigation efforts to lower or remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, and adaptation efforts to adjust systems and societies to withstand the impacts of climate…
Europe faces multiple environmental, social, and economic challenges. The European Council, representing the Member States, has endorsed the Commission’s commitment to becoming climate neutral by 2050 as part of the European Green Deal, and the European Parliament has adopted a resolution declaring a climate and environmental emergency. It seems very hard to conclude that this is a time when we need Europe to be focused on regulating less and reducing regulatory ‘burdens’ as a point of principle.
The extractive nature of mass tourism is made possible by tourist behaviour, missing regulations and lacking alternatives. There has been very little work done to make tourism more responsible, sustainable and enriching for local communities. While there is a growing number of emerging NGOs, cooperatives and social enterprises to channel tourism revenues into socially meaningful initiatives, they are often isolated and do not constitute a coherent tissue of services that could help tourists spend their budget in a thoroughly responsible way, with the most positive footprint possible. Our selection of interviews and articles aims at mapping and bringing together these initiatives, understanding their functioning, strengthening the ecosystem that feeds them and helping municipalities in adopting their tourism strategies to accommodate more responsible ways of traveling.
For those familiar with Asterix comics, Mouans-Sartoux (FR) could be compared to a small sustainable city, surrounded by the rather unsustainable French Riviera, where it’s all about real estate interest, high pressure on land use and mass tourism.
At the core of the city’s sustainable food project Good Practice, is a canteen serving one thousand 100% organic (and mostly local meals) daily, with no cost increase.
The scheme is based on a 80% food waste reduction, the introduction of plant proteins in menus, educating children and families to healthy sustainable food and the positive effects on local agriculture.
Las empresas llevan años invirtiendo en mejorar su comportamiento ambiental. Sin embargo, la situación del planeta sigue sin mejorar. No hay que ser muy avispado para darse cuenta de que algo no funciona.
Paul Polman, ex-director de la multinacional Unilever, y figura de referencia en sostenibilidad empresarial, explica que el enfoque de las empresas hasta ahora ha sido el de mitigar los daños causados por sus operaciones.
The EU has all it needs to improve its competitiveness, invest in sustainable growth and spur action by governments, institutions and citizens, leading the way for the rest of the world. Using the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a compass, the reflection paper identifies key enablers for the transition towards sustainability. It outlines three scenarios on how best to progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.
There’s more and more pressure on individuals, businesses and entire cities to show that they’re making an effort to be as ‘green’ and eco-friendly as possible. But what exactly makes a ‘green city’? Ultimately it’s a city which is taking steps to be as sustainable as possible and takes into account the impact that they’re having on the environment, but new research from comparethemarket.com has highlighted ten factors to reveal the 25 greenest capital cities in Europe.
The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Goal11, one of the 17 SDGs, is about all of these dimensions, with a specific focus on urban areas and settings. This synthesis report is the first publication showing the progress, challenges and opportunities of global monitoring of this Sustainable Development Goal.
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