The 30-Year Evolution of Urban Climate Innovation: From Decarbonizing to Co-benefits to Transformation

December 2, 2018 | Climate Innovation Laboratory Cities, Modern City Model, Urban Climate Innovation, Urban Transformation
by Pete Plastrik

The spreading and evolving efforts of cities to reduce GHG emissions have proceeded through three stages in the past three decades: Decarbonizing Emissions, Emphasizing Co-benefits, and Seeking Transformation. In Life After Carbon, we describe the emergence of urban transformation. From Chapter 6:

As climate innovations proliferate in cities, it has become common to hear urban innovators talk about the "transformation" of urban systems, neighborhoods, the economy, and the entire city. but what exactly about the city is being transformed, and how does transformation happen? the answers lie in our understanding of both cities and innovations.

Cities arrange their built and natural space in ways that establish the fundamental elements of urban life--the underlying economic activities, life-maintaining metabolism, use of natural systems, and inhabitants' capacity to shape a shared future...

We explain that urban climate innovations change the design and use of urban space in ways that don't just decarbonize the city; they change the fundamental elements of cities.

The cities are still cities, of course.... But as their underlying elements change, the cities will not be the same as they were before. They are being transformed. 

When a dozen or so cities began in the early 1990s, with an early version ICLEI, to develop strategies for reducing GHG emissions within their borders, decarbonization, not transformation was on their minds. The urban decarbonization effort gained has gained traction worldwide thanks to entities like C40 Cities, which periodically reports on the thousands of actions its city members are taking to reduce GHG emissions.

Gradually, cities realized that many of the decarbonization actions they were taking produced other, highly desirable benefits. C40 Cities identified these as increased healthiness, economic efficiency, innovation, productivity, growth in the technology sector, and quality of life. “A well-designed city can reduce congestion, improve air quality, reduce noise pollution, and decrease energy use,” state the China Development Bank guidelines. “It can create enjoyable spaces for everyone, from children to the elderly, and increases options for daily life. It makes neighborhoods more attractive and livable, and creates cities with more vitality and economic prosperity.”

With decarbonization underway and co-benefits being promoted, our book argues, the focus can also turn more to intentional transformation--replacing the ideas upon which the modern city was built in the 19th and 20th centuries, but which cannot solve cities' 21st century problems. Fortunately, we show, a new set of transformational ideas are embedded in the many climate innovations of cities.