ARTICLE | I People Participation
Reduction in CO2 emissions requires people engagement Owing to ever-growing anthropogenic activity, the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere has been quickly increasing over the last century, resulting in drastic increases in the Earth’s temperature, causing global warming. Keeping in mind numerous reports on carbon emissions, the onus of reducing the same falls on cities of the world Pooja Upadhyay | Trainee Reporter
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orests, power generation (fossil fuel combustion), transportation (fossil fuel combustion), agriculture (livestock, farming, rice cultivation, and crop residue burning), water bodies (wetlands), industry, and urban activities (building, construction, transport, solid and liquid waste) are all substantial sources of GHG. The GHG footprint is calculated by combining CO2 and non-CO2 gases and converting them to carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). As a result, the GHG footprint is a measurement of the impact of human activities on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. According to Worldometer, developed nations like the United States of America, Australia, United Arab Emirates produce the highest amount of per capita CO2 emissions. It has been noted that the world’s cities generate most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions due to concentrations of population, buildings, factories, and commerce. It is being estimated that by 2050, about 70 per cent of the world’s population will go about their daily lives in urban spaces only. This puts stress on the need to introduce sustainable practices and development in cities across the world, especially considering the fact that as of 2019,
32 October 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
urban dwellers were responsible for around three-quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions. Extreme weather phenomena have begun to strike Indian cities with alarming regularity. If global warming continues, a record 360 million people would be exposed to excessive heat in 142 Indian cities by 2050. Temperatures in three Indian cities—Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi—have steadily increased during the last five decades. Since 1960-70, the temperature in Chennai has risen by an incredible 0.9 degree Celsius. Experts believe that cities require radical decarbonisation measures such as banning fossil-fuel vehicles, transitioning to mass transportation, and progressively switching to 100 per cent renewable electricity, all of which can dramatically reduce carbon emissions. According to a dataset prepared by Norwegian University of Science and Technology in collaboration with Shinshu University, Yale, and Lund University, per capita carbon footprint is highest in Hong Kong. Same was found to be lowest in cities like Yingkou (China), Nottingham (England), Leipzig (Germany), and Dublin (Ireland).
Leipzig
A structural change panel in Germany that advised that coal be phased
out completely by 2038 opened up the possibility of a post-fossil fuel transformation for Leipzig, which is located in a mining region. Leipzig began an energy upgrading procedure in its housing sector several years ago, and the city now plans to phase out coal-fired district heating by 2023. This heat transition can make Leipzig one of the first post-fossil fuel cities. To begin with, Leipzig has attempted to cut GHG emissions in the municipal building stock using a ‘self-governance’ model. Second, Leipzig has been attempting to minimise GHG emissions by enlisting the help of others. The municipal government provides advice services to private property owners, housing firms, and renters in order to enable and encourage them to make energy-saving improvements to their buildings or reduce their energy use. The city has also introduced advisory services for janitors. Furthermore, the city has enhanced citizen involvement, such as through the civic platform ‘Leipzig think farther’, which was founded in 2012 and focuses on energy retrofitting. Nonetheless, the city has made relatively limited use of its resources, and there has been no general and long-term strategy for increasing the retrofitting rate in the city since the early 1990s.
Nottingham
