Smart City Technology for Resiliency and Inclusion
A large part of the clean technology movement has been an emphasis on inclusion. If you need further proof that inclusion is a universal good, the thesis goes something like this: the market forces that drive inequality in society are aligned, or run parallel at least, to the forces driving resource (particularly carbon)consumption, and therefore climate change. A really good article on the subject appears in the Economist “A Bad Climate for Development” and articulates how although developing countries have done the least to contribute to climate change, they are actually suffering the most from its effects. Furthermore, as these countries grow their middle classes and aspire for more, they have a bigger impact on world emissions. This problem is known formally as ‘Climate Injustice’. In this case financial inclusion often means emitting more carbon per GDP as well. While there is a huge environmental concern, to stop progress in these countries means also relegating the majority of the world to abject poverty, which is neither desirable nor politically feasible. A new paradigm is needed to contend with these huge problems!
So how do you address the problem of growth versus global resiliency? (Here we are basing resiliency on the Cities Resiliency Framework‘s four essential dimensions of urban resilience: Health & Wellbeing; Economy & Society; Infrastructure & Environment; and Leadership & Strategy.) The first hurdle is realizing that carbon emissions are not inextricably linked to growth. The second problem is getting best practices and assistance to the hardest hit areas. The first signs that we can decouple our economy from carbon are here (and See Graph Below). For the first time growth is continuing, while carbon emissions are decreasing. To solve the second problem of maintaining best practices globally, we must take a look at technologies that encourage coordination between the first and third worlds. The concept of Smart Cities and technology adoption might seem a strange place to start for alleviating pressure on climate injustice given the challenges presented in the third world include lack of physical resources like food and medicine.
However, To keep global warming down to an increase of 2°C, the World Bank calculates, would cost $140 billion to $675 billion a year in developing countries — dwarfing the $8 billion a year now flowing to them for climate-change mitigation.(Economist) To fill these gaps either the developing world has to develop a lot faster and spend that money on climate, the developed world has to increase aid immensely, or best practices must be shared to foster economic AND sustainable ways of living. In the absence of a shift-change in climate giving, or a leap to new technology they currently don’t have, cities are adopting sharing models like 100 resilient cities. The hundred cities range from Durban, South Africa to Los Angeles in the United States and represent every habitable continent as well as widely varying host countries’ capabilities based on GDP.
For example, Durban defines its challenges as including: coastal flooding, aging infrastructure, disease outbreak, drought, heat wave, and rising sea level/coastal erosion. These climate-related issues are not only face by Durban however. They are also faced by Boulder Colorado, and therefore both cities invested in hiring Chief Resilience Officers, or CRO’s to help assess and address risks rising from the local effects of climate change. 100 Resilient Cities, helped provide a framework and interface between the cities facing similar challenges so that they could face them together.
With a technological framework for these cities to cooperate and share their specific efforts, cities that face seemingly unique challenges are able to export their solutions worldwide. Rotterdam is uniquely suited for experimenting with resiliency because it is largely below or at sea level. But Rotterdam’s expertise and economic ability to experiment benefits all cities that want to learn best practices in limiting flooding and increasing water conservation. Some of the beneficiaries of this knowledge include New Orleans and Mexico City.
It is a hard fact to swallow that economic progress in our current carbon intensive economy has been linked to causing the biggest problem we face today, climate change. Climate injustice is also a particularly difficult issue because those that are affected most, have contributed least to the problem. If developing countries decide to increase their own carbon emissions to raise their populations out of poverty, they will inevitably be harming themselves and the rest of the world. Just as first world development has affected the global climate situation, so too must our salvation be found in technology. That technology will be green technologies that eliminate our reliance on carbon burning to grow our economies, but will also be dependent on our ability to share across borders and address the crises we face today. Only with a holistic approach to inequality, resilience and sustainable energy will our economies be able to continue to grow and address climate change in the short and long terms. That coordination and cooperation is going to take technical and managerial changes in how we work with one another, and that is the essence of smart city thinking at its best!
Addendum:
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