Abstract
Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C will require rapid decarbonisation of the world’s electricity and transport systems. This must occur against a background of continuing urbanisation and the shift to the information economy. While replacement of fossil fuels in electricity generation is underway, urban transport is currently dominated by petrol and diesel-powered vehicles. The City of the Future will need to be built around a different transport and urban paradigm. This article argues that the new model will be a polycentric city linked by fast electric rail, with local access based on autonomous “community”-owned electric cars and buses supplemented by bicycles, electric bikes and scooters, with all electricity generated from renewables. Less space will be wasted on roads and parking, enabling higher accessibility yet more usable public open space. Building the cities of the future will require national governments to accelerate local initiatives through appropriate policy settings and strategic investment. The precise way in which individual cities move into the future will vary, and the article illustrates how the transformation could work for Australian cities, like Sydney, currently some of the most car dependent in the world, using new financial and city partnerships.
Highlights
With more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities, and urban areas accounting for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions and creating more than 80% of the world’s GDP, solutions to global warming will inevitably involve cities reducing their greenhouse “footprints” (IPCC, 2014a)
The article looks at the history of urban transport and how it is changing suggesting a new urban paradigm is emerging; these trends are used to create what could be The City of the Future and how it can be imagined to help with the 1.5 °C agenda
The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2014b) indicates that transport accounted for 14% of global Greenhouse Gas emissions in 2010, with 95% of transport energy coming from oil
Summary
With more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities, and urban areas accounting for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions and creating more than 80% of the world’s GDP, solutions to global warming will inevitably involve cities reducing their greenhouse “footprints” (IPCC, 2014a). This article looks at how these emerging trends could combine to generate a radical transformation of transport technologies and travel behaviour, but of the way we build and live in our cities It suggests that the growing need for urban accessibility can be solved by a combination of:. The article examines how these trends could emerge, their potential benefits, and how they could be encouraged by appropriate policies at national, state and local level It looks in detail at how they could apply in Australian cities using Sydney as a case study; currently Australian cities are amongst the most car-dependent and transport emissions intensive in the world and they are experiencing rapid population growth which enables them to demonstrate rapid transformation. The article looks at the history of urban transport and how it is changing suggesting a new urban paradigm is emerging; these trends are used to create what could be The City of the Future and how it can be imagined to help with the 1.5 °C agenda
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