Sustainable cities and human settlements

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 aims to "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable." This goal acknowledges the growing importance of urban areas, as it's projected that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world's population will live in cities. Consequently, cities bear significant implications for sustainability, economic growth, and societal wellbeing.

Inclusivity is a key feature of sustainable cities. This refers to equitable access to opportunities, public services, and amenities, regardless of a person's background or circumstances. It implies the availability of affordable and adequate housing, thus addressing issues of homelessness and substandard living conditions.

Safety in cities means ensuring urban environments that protect their inhabitants from both physical harm and psychological distress. This involves addressing crime rates, traffic accidents, and potential hazards from poor infrastructure, while also considering the impacts of noise, pollution, and overcrowdedness on mental health.

Resilience is another important aspect, particularly in the face of climate change. Resilient cities can withstand and quickly recover from shocks such as natural disasters or economic crises. This involves aspects such as resilient infrastructure, disaster risk reduction strategies, and adaptive capacities at the community level.

Sustainability, finally, requires cities to function in a way that doesn't compromise future generations' ability to meet their own needs. This includes sustainable urban planning to reduce environmental impact, promote energy efficiency, and conserve resources. It also considers the importance of green spaces for biodiversity and the wellbeing of urban residents.

SDG 11 is interconnected with many other SDGs. For example, sustainable urban transport systems contribute to SDG 13 (Climate Action) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, ensuring access to green and public spaces supports SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being).

Achieving sustainable cities and human settlements requires cooperation and participation from various stakeholders, including government authorities, urban planners, businesses, and citizens. Through their collective efforts, cities can be transformed into hubs of sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity, contributing significantly towards the realization of the SDGs.

Owing to its versatility, biomass can be used for a range of CO2 mitigation and removal options. The recent adoption of end-of-century temperature targets at the global scale, along with mid-century economy-wide net zero emission targets in Europe, has boosted demand forecasts for this valuable resource. Given the limited nature of sustainable biomass supply, it is important to understand most efficient uses of biomass, both in terms of avoided CO2 emissions (i.e., substituted energy and economic services) and CO2 removal.
Elsevier,

The Lancet Planetary Health, Volume 5, July 2021

Record climate extremes are reducing urban liveability, compounding inequality, and threatening infrastructure. Adaptation measures that integrate technological, nature-based, and social solutions can provide multiple co-benefits to address complex socioecological issues in cities while increasing resilience to potential impacts. However, there remain many challenges to developing and implementing integrated solutions.

Elsevier and the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) are pleased to announce the third biennial Renewable Transformation Challenge. If you have an innovative proposal which contributes to the goal of transitioning to 100% renewable energy, submit your application for a chance to win €20,000.
The lock down engendered by COVID-19 pandemic has impacted positively on the environment through reduction of the emissions of green house gases, CO2, CO and other pollutants into the atmosphere below the pre-COVID-19 levels. There are fears that the gains made in the environment during COVID-19 may be frittered away as nations around the world make serious efforts to boost the COVID-19 recessed economy through massive investments in the sectors of the economy that are not environmentally friendly.

Despite the improvement in technologies for the production of alternative fuels (AFs), and the needs for using more AFs for motor vehicles for the reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gases, the number of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) in the global transportation sector has not been increasing significantly (there are even small drops for adapting some AFs through the projections) in recent years and even in the near future with projections to 2050. And gasoline and diesel fuels will remain as the main energy sources for motor vehicles.

This Practice Note covers the main pillars of access to justice in environmental matters in the UK under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention). Access to justice and the ability to effectively challenge environmental decisions are key to SDG 16.
In this episode of the “World We Want” podcast series, RELX’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, talks to Kariuki Ngari about leadership.
The pre-use stage (construction) emissions of buildings occur in a short time. Wooden buildings seem to emit less compared to concrete ones in pre-use stage according to LCA. Green building certificates need to consider embodied emissions more exhaustively.
As the country with the world's largest coal power capacity, China is launching a national carbon market. How the carbon pricing may contribute to phasing out China's coal power is a great concern. We collect full-sample data set of China's 4540 operating coal plant units and develop a stochastic Monte-Carlo financial model to assess the financial sustainability of the plant operation. Although China's coal plants have long residual technical lifetime, their operations are close to the break-even state.

The chemical industry needs to significantly decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in order to meet the 2050 carbon neutrality goal. Utilization of CO2 as a chemical feedstock for bulk products is a promising way to mitigate industrial emissions; however, CO2-based manufacturing is currently not competitive with the established petrochemical methods and its deployment requires creation of a new value chain.

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