MAINSTREAMING LOW CARBON URBAN DEVELOPMENT – DECARBONIZING CITIES

Abstract

For decades now, the climate changes have required great attention in sustainable development of the planet, and, same as reducing carbon emissions in the environment, they have become an absolute imperative for the future of the human civilization. Compliance with the Paris Agreement requires the transformation of national economies in order to meet net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century. To achieve this, countries need to define long-term decarbonisation strategies with short- and medium-term actions to determine their ideal future scenario, while maximizing socio-economic benefits. Identifying new roads and fostering urban development with very low or neutral carbon content is a new challenge for government, industry and the community. Providing the capacity to generate and trade carbon credits in urban development could potentially help decarbonise cities. Carbon certification has also been identified as a way of recognizing and rewarding progressive urban development, which can show a true reduction in carbon. This paper describes the procedures that followed in order to support the creation of a decarbonisation trajectory for the transport and energy sectors. In this paper, we will discuss the technological path of deep decarbonization that supports reaching zero emissions by 2050. Certainly, innovations in decarbonisation will be the main source of wealth in the future. So far, it has been shown that technologies are available, the principles of urban design for decarbonisation are well understood, but management systems to facilitate and manage development at the municipal level are still largely lacking. If we succeed in developing such systems, processes, and mechanisms that target the built environment and reward positive behavior, we could begin to radically decarbonize our cities.