City leadership is mission-critical to managing the climate crisis

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Webinars

OnDemand Webinar: Harnessing digital twins for smarter, safer, and more efficient cities

Watch our webinar with Bentley Systems OnDemand to delve into the opportunities of utilising digital twin technologies in urban environments, taking a specific look at Dublin City Council’s digital twin work.

OnDemand Webinar: Futureproofing smart cities - navigating interoperability and open standards

Watch this webinar with Paradox Engineering OnDemand to learn how to navigate the world of open standards for cities that are interoperable and futureproof.

Special Reports

A clean and efficient future: energy in focus at Cities Climate Action Summit 2024

Discover how this year’s Cities Climate Action Summit puts the spotlight on the switch to clean and renewable energy, and the importance of energy-efficiency.

SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024: experience ‘Tokyo 2050’ todaySponsored by The SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024 Showcase Program Executive Committee

Discover innovative concepts to solve urban issues through SusHi Tech Tokyo’s programme focused on leveraging diverse ideas, digital know-how and cutting-edge technologies.

Smart Cities Reports

SmartCitiesWorld City Profile – Dublin

Find out how Dublin is innovating to improve experiences and services for its communities in the latest SmartCitiesWorld City Profile, including digital twin projects, traffic reduction, and economic growth.

SmartCitiesWorld City Profile 2024 – City of Madrid

Discover how the city of Madrid is innovating to become a smarter, more sustainable city that’s able to deliver improved services to residents and visitors alike.

Podcasts

Urban Exchange Podcast Episode 26 - Championing urban heat resilience: Global Chief Heat Officer Eleni Myrivili

The Urban Exchange welcomes Eleni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer for UN-Habitat and Atlantic Council, to discuss combatting urban heat at the local level.

Urban Exchange Podcast Episode 25 - Understanding AI-powered water resilienceSponsored by Sand Technologies

Discover how AI, combined with forward-thinking planning, assessment and regulation, can support cities in getting their water resilience strategy right in the latest Urban Exchange with the Mayor of Broward County, Florida.

Opinions

The built environment’s Scope 3 emissions conundrum

Without serious consideration for Scope 3 emissions, we will be unable to reach global net zero goals and improve the quality of life of building occupants, says Mahesh Ramanujam, CEO of Global Network for Zero.

Cities Climate Action Summit 2024 – meet the exhibitor: Latitudo 40

Latitudo 40 sits at the convergence of satellite imagery analysis and AI and will demonstrate the vital role satellite data has to play in helping cities tackle the challenges of climate change.

Home | Energy & Environment | Cop26 | Cop26 Charter

Most people now live in cities which are the epicentres of human activity. While covering 3 per cent of earth's surface, cities consume 78 per cent of the world's energy and produce more than 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.

With this in mind, SmartCitiesWorld and our Advisory Board (made up of cities, city networks and industry experts) have put forward 10 principles that we believe should be reflected in any COP26 agreement. (You can read our Special Report by our Editor, Luke Antoniou)

These principles will help us all in the move towards net zero carbon emissions and also immeasurably improve the lives of a city's citizens.

Pledge your support and help SmartCitiesWorld spotlight the critical role cities will play in delivering a sustainable future, and how important it is that they are given the full support of national governments in doing so.

Add your name to the SmartCitiesWorld Open letter to COP26 leaders

10 Principles

INCLUSION: Including all citizens in decision making drives the best results. The hallmarks of good city governance are participation, transparency, accountability and open data.

DIVERSITY: Encouraging diversity is a key principle in fostering city-scale resilience and sustainability.

RESILIENCE: Cities with a resilience strategy are better equipped to protect their citizens and environment from the worst effects of climate change.

WELLBEING: City strategies measured by wellbeing indices deliver better long term outcomes than cities driven by economic measure alone.

GREEN SPACES: The cities that create and preserve green spaces for native trees and flora create bigger long-term resilience, wellbeing, and prosperity for their citizens and the bio-sphere.

NATIONAL-LEVEL SUPPORT: Cities committing to net-zero targets and a 'just transition' should be actively encouraged and supported by national government programmes to help nations achieve their ambitions.

INFRA-STRUCTURE: The best cities give citizens access to infrastructure that provides physical safety, clean sanitation, waste disposal, clean air, a renewable energy supply, digital connectivity.

SYSTEMS THINKING: Nations that equip leaders with systems thinking, including the ability to build on system synergies and circular economy principles, are most likely to meet their challenging net zero targets.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY: Cities using secure digital technology to measure and manage activity across city-systems are more able to bring about effective local change then those without the data.