Our cities are at the forefront of climate change, consuming around 75% of the world’s energy and producing more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. But they also hold the tools to be part of the solution, creating meaningful impact while being small and nimble enough to avoid the bureaucracy of national politics. In fact, some cities have already started work.
Some of the most extreme weather events on record took place in 2022, as climate change-induced wildfires and droughts ravaged parts of Europe, the U.S. and Africa, even as Asia battled disastrous floods and monsoon rains.
Experts say this is just the beginning.
“What we calculated and what we knew as, say, one-in-10-year events is now becoming one-in-five-years,” Ana Mijic, professor at Imperial College London, told CNBC.
The world’s cities are at the forefront of those shifts.
Cities play an outsized role in climate change, consuming around 75% of the world’s energy and producing more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions.
But could they also be part of the solution, being small and nimble enough to avoid the bureaucracy of national politics?
Watch the video above to find out how cities are responding to — and reducing — the rising risks of climate change.
