To be sustainable, cities must be inclusive

(Dec. 2024) Cities produce about three-quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions, and are responsible for 70% of the world’s energy consumption. For that reason, sustainable development is possible only if we tackle the net-zero cities challenge.

So says Giorgia Rambelli, the Director of Mission Innovation at the Urban Transitions Mission.

Speaking with Transform Talks at the recent COP29 gathering in Baku, Rambelli told Huawei Editor-in-Chief Gavin Allen that getting cities to net-zero status is only part of the solution.

“Cities are essential,” she said. “They are the bridge between citizens and the policies we need for a sustainable future.” For that reason, mere decarbonization is not enough. “There is no way to have sustainable cities that are just decarbonized. They need to be inclusive, to bring citizens on board.”

Rambelli said that, although technology is key to sustainability, cities and local governments often are unable to fully reap technology’s full benefits.

“Cities have a lot of competent people,” Rambelli notes. “But sometimes it's difficult for them to collaborate. There is also often a lack of capacity – not just with respect to resources, which is still a big challenge, but in understanding what technologies are out there.”

She recommends that city leaders think not just about solutions that are ambitious, but about solutions that are affordable and can be scaled. “The world is full of amazing pilot projects,” Rambelli says. “But the scale we need for the transition that actually has to happen, that’s something totally different.”