What does this future city look like? Sadly, our collective imagination is failing us. They also need to find ways to lift up already vulnerable and marginalized groups. Projections by the world’s leading scientists say future cities need to have a near-zero-carbon footprint, eliminate their reliance on fossil fuels and be able to manage weather extremes such as heavy rains and heat waves. Low-income groups are disproportionately affected, as they are more likely to live in less robust homes and be in the path of natural hazards such as floods and heat waves – not to mention, they have fewer resources available to respond when disaster does strike. The result is deeply unfair: those who have contributed and benefited least from carbon-fueled growth are its frontline victims. As more people move to cities, they face rising housing prices, unequal access to employment opportunities and public amenities, and they now also contend with the weather extremes of a changing climate. In turn, climate change, one result of carbon-fueled growth over the last two centuries, is also a driver of urban inequality.īy 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people could be living in cities. How does climate change fit into this picture? Leading urban experts think that the current path of cities far exceeds planetary boundaries of what is sustainable. In some cities, like those in South Africa, well-meaning policies and investments in transit and housing have actually deepened the inequality and segregation experienced by low-income communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world’s cities, where extreme wealth can exist next door to concentrated poverty. In the 21st century, a seemingly global prosperity masks an unequal distribution of benefits.
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