Cities need to spend £15 trillion on greening infrastructure

Greenwise Staff

23rd May 2010

Cities are going to have to spend £15 trillion on sustainable and green infrastructure over the next 30 years to prevent a disastrous increase in global warming, according to a new report commissioned by the WorldWide Fund For Nature (WWF).

The report – 'Reinventing The City – Three Prerequisites For Greening Urban Infrastructures’– concludes that such a level of investment is the only way to limit global warming through to 2050 to less than two degrees Celsius.

The majority of the world’s population now resides in cities and by 2050, it is estimated that figure will rise to 70 per cent.

By investing heavily on energy efficient housing construction, low emission vehicle and logistics systems and 'green ICT’, cities will be able to reduce CO2 emissions produced by urban infrastructure by up to 50 per cent, the report says.

"This level of investment generates a realistic chance of actually limiting global warming through to 2050 to less than two degrees Celcius," said Nick Pennell, Partner and lead of the Low Carbon & Sustainability group at Booz & Company, the global management consulting firm that carried out the report on behalf of WWF.

"Our calculations also show that investments in green ICT infrastructure, for example, generally produce a payback quickly and therefore barely result in any additional expense."

Smart grids

Investment in green ICT infrastructure includes smart grids. A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology to control appliances at consumers' homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. Smart grids will be able to significantly increasing the share from renewable energy sources in the energy mix, the report says, an important means of reducing carbon emissions.

Small cities

In addition, the report calls for a holistic national urban planning approach. New cities will need to be created 'small’ rather than the megacities that characterise the developed world, but they will also need to be planned as high density urban environments. Within them, zero-energy buildings and electrified public and private transportation fuelled by renewable energy will overcome issues of population density.

Masdar City

The report points to Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City as an example of such green cities of the future. Among the green tech solutions planned for the city are innovations such as solar-powered vehicles, which an expected 40,000 residents will share, and traditional ideas, such as narrow alleyways between buildings that will offer shade and limit the need for air-conditioning.