A new report by C40, an environmental group that is committed to fighting climate change, revealed in a new report that cities play a major role in the effort against climate change. The solution: stop buying so many things.
It sounds simple because, according to the C40, it is. Despite the knowledge we have on climate change, even the most “forward thinking” cities have a long way to go to neutralize their carbon emissions. For years, cities have been underestimating the amount of carbon that their cities emit because they only add up the carbon costs that occur within city limits.
In reality, each person’s carbon footprint comes from what they consume, use and purchase that can originate outside of city parameters. Technology and clothes are huge contributors to the carbon released into the atmosphere by city dwellers, regardless of where they get those items.
The report suggests that cities should aim at cutting their emissions by 50 per cent within the next 11 years and then by a total of 80 per cent by 2050. Since those emissions can be traced back to the consumer goods and services that are produced outside of the city, the best thing for residents to do is to pull back on consumption.
Numbers, Figures, Facts:
Around 55 per cent of all humans today live in urban areas where they make up about 70 per cent of all annual carbon emissions. In the future, even more of the Earth’s population will congregate in cities, reaching about 70 per cent by 2050. If nothing changes, carbon emissions are on track to doubling by 2050, and as cities’ carbon emissions increase, the planet’s do, too.
A Culture of Clean Cities:
Cities are definitely making strides in the right direction, but it doesn’t mean that they are clean. Many cities have sold themselves as pinnacles for low carbon living with densely packed neighbourhoods, green transit systems and eco rooftops. But people who come from wealthy city neighbourhoods tend to buy more, fly more, and generally use more energy than those living in urban areas.
A T-Shirt for Thoughts?
A t-shirt brought at a high end store might be made out of cotton grown in India; manufactured in China using coal energy, packed up in another country that uses oil-based plastic packaging, and shipped across the ocean in fossil-fuel container ships. Let’s not discount the delivery truck used to bring it to the store in which it hangs.
If you want to be real about your carbon footprint, think outside of the box. It turns out that urbanites have a carbon toll of around 60 per cent higher than previously thought. People in 96 of the world’s largest cities make up 10 percent of all global carbon emissions each year and this number is only going up.
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