Transition in Cities

Now home to over half the world’s population, most of our climate transitions find their way into a city at some point. The built environment is downstream to much of the electrical power generated by renewables and the transition minerals that enable them. Cities are also the destination for many building materials, infrastructure, transport systems and many food and other consumer products. For historic reasons, cities often sit on rivers or are positioned by the coast and so are vulnerable to rises in sea level and extreme weather events. They are also where many of the world’s quarter of a billion ‘climate migrants’ are likely to end up over the years ahead. There will be no climate transition to Net Zero if cities are not part of the journey and the need for all transitions to be just and equitable is paramount given how many livelihoods, homes, and subsistence decisions there are at stake. The city is part of any Just System approach, and its affected stakeholders are both its residents but also those living far away connected by energy, materials, food, or other stocks in long value chains.