Davos leaders share what's ahead for cities, prepping London for climate change and other urban transformation stories you need to read

Circular construction is a key part of the decarbonization journey, panellists agreed during a session on building materials at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos on 16 January.

The Right Stuff: A New Relationship with Materials featured business leaders from the sector, as well as Cristina Gamboa, the CEO of the World Green Building Council.

"In the last few years, the construction industry has been shifting towards a greater understanding of performance and having data ... We're just getting started on understanding the materials passport side," said Gamboa.

By 2030, there will be around 150 materials recycling centres in Europe, said Nollaig Forrest, Chief Sustainability Officer, Holcim Ltd.

"You can recycle 100% of concrete in an infinite loop, and we're building up the infrastructure to make that happen today."

Besides Forest and Gamboa, Coen van Oostrom, Founder and CEO of EDGE Technologies, and Arjun Dhawan, Vice-Chairman of HCC Ltd joined the panel session. You can watch the full session here.

Also at Davos, members of the Davos Baukultur Alliance pledged to support the Government of Ukraine in ensuring a holistic approach to reconstruction. It announced new commitments including a partnership between VELUX and SOS Children's Villages to construct sustainable and high-quality homes for orphans of the ongoing conflict.

The Forum's Annual Meeting underscored the critical role of cities in shaping our shared future, according to Jeff Merritt, the Forum's Head of Centre for Urban Transformation. Generating more than 80% of global GDP and hosting the majority of the global population, cities will be key to bolstering sustainability, resilience and affordability for growing urban populations.

The UK's capital city, home to more than 9.6 million people, is not adequately prepared for the deadly risks posed by climate change, according to a new report commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

It warns that London's infrastructure and emergency response systems are ill-equipped to handle extreme weather events such as flooding and heatwaves - and calls for increased investment in measures to build resilience and adapt to the changing climate.

"London has many good plans and programmes to prepare for climate hazards but we need to recognize that Londoners now face lethal risks," the chair of the report, and former chair of the Environment Agency, Emma Howard Boyd told Reuters.

"Things that we need to deal with in the future have suddenly become very, very real."

China has put forward new air-quality targets for its green and low-carbon development. However, these targets still surpass the limit advised by the World Health Organization. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta are identified as a "key battlefield" to control the amount of fine particulate matter and reduce the emission of multiple pollutants.

The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is using drones to speed up reforestation efforts. The initiative, a partnership between the city hall and start-up Morfo, aims to seed local native species in hard-to-reach areas. One drone can disperse 180 seed capsules per minute, making it 100 times faster than traditional methods.

Office space leasing transactions in India's top eight cities, including Bengaluru and Mumbai, increased by 15% in 2023 compared to the previous year. This is the highest growth since 2019, according to a report by real estate consultancy Knight Frank. Global and local companies are driving this demand, with major accounting firms and manufacturers investing in new Indian facilities.

Australian house prices rose by 8.1% in 2023, after a 5% drop in 2022, but interest rate hikes and cost-of-living pressures slowed the rise in the last few months of the year. Sydney saw an 11.1% annual rise, while other cities like Perth and Brisbane saw larger increases of 15% and 13% respectively.

Rising rents and home costs are placing a diminishing supply of housing options out of reach for many low- and middle-income households. Solving the housing crisis requires support from the public sector using four key ingredients, says Mark Edward Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young.

Helsinki has topped rankings as the world’s most future-ready city for urban transport thanks to government funding, electric vehicle use and public transport. The capital of Finland is aiming for all vehicles in the city to be electric by 2030. Urban administrations can follow Helsinki’s footsteps with the World Economic Forum’s Urban Mobility Scorecard tool.

Subways connect people to jobs, education and healthcare, boosting opportunity and economic growth. ️But, more than that, this World Bank study of more than 200 subway projects finds subways cut CO2 emissions in half.