The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal – to drastically reduce their climate impacts.
The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal – to drastically reduce their climate impacts. Powerful, combined efforts are absolutely crucial for the potential to achieve the UN's sustainability goals. And what’s more – everything has to happen very quickly.
These are the cornerstones to the roadmap presented at the Beyond 2020 World Conference.
Today, 55 percent of the world's population lives in cities. By 2050, that figure is estimated to have risen to 68 percent, according to the UN. Cities already produce 70 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. Buildings and construction account for 40 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Rapid urbanisation is bringing new demands that need to be met in ecologically, economically and socially sustainable ways.
“If we continue as before, we have no chance of even getting close to the climate goals. Now we need to act with new radical thinking and we need to do it fast, and increase the pace at which we work to reduce cities' climate impact. We must look for innovative ways to build our societies so that we move towards the sustainability goals, and not away from them”, says Colin Fudge, Visiting Professor of urban futures and design at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
Roadmap for the built environment sector worldwide
As an outcome of the Beyond 2020 World Conference, Colin Fudge and his colleague Holger Wallbaum have established a "Framework for a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment". The framework aims to lay the foundation for regional strategies that can guide the entire sector in working towards sustainable cities and communities, and the goals of the UN Agenda 2030.
Read more at Chalmers University of Technology
Photo Credit: marcinjozwiak via Pixabay
