September 28, 2021in News 1 Likes

World Economic Forum Launches Toolbox of Solutions to Accelerate Decarbonization in Cities

Jerry Shen, Unsplash

 

Geneva, Switzerland, 22 September 2021 – Cities have a crucial role to play in the race to reach net-zero emissions by 2050; to respond to this challenge, the World Economic Forum today launches a Toolbox of Solutions, a digital platform containing more than 200 leading practices and case studies to boost sustainability and reduce emissions in cities, at its Sustainable Development Impact Summit

The platform, developed in collaboration with Accenture, focuses on solutions that address clean electrification, efficiency and smart infrastructure across sectors including energy, buildings and mobility

Explore the toolbox here

 

With the percentage of people living in cities projected to rise to 68% by 2050, resulting in high energy consumption, greater infrastructure needs and, carbon emissions, cities have a critical role to play in the race to reach net zero. To help address this challenge, the World Economic Forum, is releasing today the first iteration of its Toolbox of Solutions, designed and built in collaboration with Accenture.

 

The toolbox is an interactive digital platform containing more than 200 practical solutions to help city leaders, national governments and businesses evaluate and identify optimal solutions for near-term implementation, kick-starting their decarbonization journey. The first-of-its-kind toolbox draws on input and case studies from more than 110 cities, businesses, academics, civil society leaders and other urban stakeholders around the world and across sectors to capture best practices and case studies for urban transformation and decarbonization.

“Urban ecosystems are pivotal in our global journey to net zero, driven by clean and smart electrification. These sustainability initiatives can help accelerate efforts to address climate change with practical and integrated energy solutions for urban transformation for cities of any size around the world,”

–Jean-Marc Ollagnier, Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Accenture.

The solutions include policy, business and finance models that result in reduced emissions and other valuable outcomes such as job creation and improved air quality. These solutions are also tailored to specific city attributes including the electricity grid’s health, local population density and income level.

“Decarbonization solutions already exist – we don’t need to wait for the next big innovation. This platform provides examples of policies and business models that have been used successfully around the world. We are starting with 200 solutions and expect to have many more over the course of the next year,”

– Kristen Panerali, Head of Energy, Materials and Infrastructure Programme, World Economic Forum.

“Urban ecosystems are pivotal in our global journey to net zero, driven by clean and smart electrification. These sustainability initiatives can help accelerate efforts to address climate change with practical and integrated energy solutions for urban transformation for cities of any size around the world,” said Jean-Marc Ollagnier, Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Accenture.

 

Achieving net-zero emissions at city scale will require a transformation in how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed. A related report shows how the built environment and mobility can serve as a catalyst for urban transformation and decarbonization anywhere in the world.

 

The Toolbox of Solutions is part of the Forum’s Net-Zero Carbon Cities programme, which brings together businesses with city, regional and national government leaders to accelerate urban transitions to a net-zero future. The programme’s objective is to align and scale efforts across businesses, cities and national-level governments to deliver urban ecosystems that are sustainable, resilient and equitable. The programme aims to enable transformation towards clean electrification and circularity, using integrated energy solutions to address energy, buildings and mobility. The Net-Zero Carbon Cities programme is co-chaired by Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric, and Francesco Starace, Chief Executive Officer, Enel.

 

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September 7, 2020in News 4 Likes

Why Climate Neutrality needs Circularity

“How we make and use products and how we produce food generates almost half of the emissions in our current economic system because the production of goods and infrastructure generates emissions all along value chains,” said Mayor Minna Arve of Turku, Finland, at ICLEI’s July Race-to-Zero dialogue, which brought together many levels of government to reflect on local governments’ efforts to become climate neutral.

Cities typically build their climate plans and measure progress using production-based carbon inventories. These inventories map how much carbon is emitted by different sectors that operate within cities’ administrative boundaries and it is therefore mainly these emissions that are targeted in local mitigation efforts. Tackling production-based emissions is critical to the success of the Paris Agreement but it’s only half of the picture. Cities have to be looking at consumption-based emissions, too. These so-called indirect emissions are proving to be the blind spot of current mitigation efforts.

“How we make and use products and how we produce food generates almost half of the emissions in our current economic system because the production of goods and infrastructure generates emissions all along value chains,”

Estimates by C40 prove Mayor Arve’s point – the emissions induced by consumption in cities are likely to be at least as high as the emissions directly linked to local production. Because production systems are fragmented, the consumption levels in cities create indirect emissions that often arise far from the place of consumption.

Learnings from Turku, Finland

The city of Turku, Finland, is one of 449 cities that have joined Race to Zero, a global campaign gathering actors outside national governments that committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. The objective is to build momentum around the shift to a decarbonized economy ahead of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), where governments must strengthen their contributions to the Paris Agreement to ensure they are on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

the emissions induced by consumption in cities are likely to be at least as high as the emissions directly linked to local production. Because production systems are fragmented, the consumption levels in cities create indirect emissions that often arise far from the place of consumption.

With its climate plan binding the city to become climate neutral by 2029, Turku is well ahead of the 2050 deadline. The city has already cut its emissions by half compared to 1990 levels, thanks to investments in renewable energy, decarbonizing district heating and low-carbon transport.

However the carbon footprint of individual consumption in Finland remains particularly high. According to the 1.5 Degree Lifestyles report by Sitra and IGES, Finns emit on average 10,4 tCO2e per capita per year, a footprint that would need to become ten times smaller by 2050 to meet the 1.5 degree target.

With this in mind, Turku is looking to mobilize local actors and investing in the circular economy, a resource management framework that prioritizes regenerative resources, preserves what is already made, uses waste as a resource and generates new business models to decrease extraction needs.

Mayor Minna Arve and the city of Turku are focusing on the circular economy as a tool to address the challenge of consumption-based emissions. “Circular economy is an efficient tool to address these hidden emissions because it targets the design of products and aims at reducing resource extraction as early in the supply chain as possible.”, Arve pointed out at the Race to Zero dialogues. “Turku is the first city linking the circular economy to its climate plan to help address greenhouse gas emissions in a systemic manner and beyond its jurisdictional boundaries.”

“Circular economy is an efficient tool to address these hidden emissions because it targets the design of products and aims at reducing resource extraction as early in the supply chain as possible.”

How the circular economy can help

The Circular Turku roadmap will target five key sectors (food, transport and logistics, buildings and construction, energy and water) to identify interventions that would support a transition to zero emission and zero waste.

These efforts build on existing work around the circular economy in Turku. The city has been supporting circular economy initiatives and innovations that reduce demand for primary resource extraction and make best use of existing materials, thereby contributing indirectly to climate neutrality goals.

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