In his book Building and Dwelling, the LSE professor and urbanist Richard Sennett writes: “the built environment is one thing, how people dwell in it another.” That’s doubly true when it comes to how we think about our cities in the fight against climate change. Many of Britain’s cities first appeared during the Industrial Revolution, when city life was dominated by the demands of mass production and the rapid expansion of heavy industry. The hallmarks of this heritage remain today: those attending COP26 at Glasgow’s exhibition centre will see the Finnieston Crane right beside them on the Clyde, a testament to the city’s proud history of shipbuilding.
On the one hand, the whole world is still living under the shadow of that era. The pull of city life and its promise of secure employment and a better life is as strong as ever. A 2018 report published by the United Nations estimates that half of the globe’s entire population now resides in cities; by 2050, that number is set to be closer to two-thirds, with much of the increase in Asia and Africa. By 2030, the world is expected to have 43 “megacities”—that is, cities with 10m inhabitants or more.
But on the other hand, how we “dwell” in these urban realms has gone through some enormous changes over the centuries—we might see the Finnieston Crane, but few of us in the developed world equate city life with heavy industry anymore. And things will have to change even further still, if we are to stand any hope of reaching net zero as set out by the Paris agreement—also by 2050.
Unsurprisingly, cities also matter because of the disproportionate strain they place on our climate. UN Habitat estimates that, although they cover only 2 per cent of the earth’s surface, cities account for 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time taking up 78 per cent of all energy consumption. Those statistics might not seem surprising, but they should drive home just how big the task at hand really is. For the foreseeable future, the expansion of our cities is all but inevitable—and yet we can’t afford to let them expand in the way they’ve always done.
So how might our cities adapt? This is the challenge governments everywhere have been trying to tackle, but few (if any) have thus far come up with solutions that go far enough. One thing is certain, however. Thirty years from now, urban life will not be the same—just as it was not the same thirty years before. The question is whether we decide to take control of what those changes might be.
