5 lessons from the world’s most successful cities

Imagine a bank note. It’s lying there on the footpath 20 feet ahead of us. We are walking down Wangfujing Street in Beijing, or maybe Fifth Avenue in New York, and from this distance we can’t quite spot how big the banknote is; a 10, a 50 or a 100? Chinese yuan or US dollars? We are in a bit of a rush, but of course we appreciate an opportunity when we see one and take the time to pick it up and pocket it.

Right now, successful cities across the world are doing just that; exploiting opportunities that are almost as easy as picking money up off the street. And by learning from these cities and applying their solutions other cities around the world can seize these opportunities too.

Cities can make a real difference

Cities play a key role in combating climate change. They might only cover 2% of the world’s surface, but they drive 80% of its economic output, and today over half of the earth’s population lives in them. With urbanisation on an upward curve, these city-dwellers can look forward to being joined by 2.3 billion more people by 2050.

This means that cities can make a real difference. The benefits of creating compact connected and energy efficient cities are abundant. When done right, city planning can generate growth and create jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and make services like water, energy, and transport more accessible. The technologies to make that happen already exist and by fast tracking the adaption of these innovative solutions we can accelerate low-carbon development of our cities. And the investments even come with fast returns on investment.

The building sector offers great potential       

One key step to unlocking the potential of well-planned and efficient cities is the built environment. We need to accelerate the uptake of the best technologies when we expand our cities or renovate existing buildings and infrastructure. By doing this, we can grab the opportunity within our reach to pursue a low-carbon development path and save money at the same time.

Today, the building sector offers the largest cost-effective opportunity for energy savings. It is the largest energy-consuming sector and accounts for over one third of final global energy consumption. At the same time, two-thirds of the urban square meterage needed across the world 15 years from now has not been built yet. This offers city developers the opportunity to design new buildings that are energy efficient from the beginning.

An example of this is the second largest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower. The building complies with the strictest environmental requirements, helped along by modern technology.^.Buildings like this don’t only save energy, they also increase comfort and reduce air pollution, making cities more liveable. Another example is HafenCity, a new quarter that has been developed in the heart of Hamburg. Here, new technologies keep the consumption of power, heating and cooling to a minimum, saving fuel costs as well as CO₂ emissions. And in Russia a new Kindergarten in Tomsk has all its heat and hot water supplied via heat pumps, which cuts the heating costs down to half  compared to the cost of heat supplied by conventional sources.

Modern infrastructures distribute power and water

As buildings are part of a bigger energy system, cities will need infrastructure to distribute power and hot and cold water. Modern energy systems can cater for this and tap into a wide range of low-carbon energy sources. A transition to modern district heating and cooling systems is better for our environment. Several cities – including Anshan, Dubai, Munich, Tokyo, Warsaw or Paris leverage the potential of combined heat and power (CHP), waste-to-heat or allow the redirecting of industry surplus heat that otherwise would be wasted.

This type of solution can be applied in many other cities too and by 2050, as much as 58% of the CO₂ reductions required in the energy sector could be achieved in this way.

Saving water 

Finally, as global population increases and standards of living rise, more water is needed in homes and for production of food and products. According to the United Nations, we can expect the demand for water to increase by 55% within the next generation. Fortunately, we have the means to cost-efficiently take this challenge in hand.

Wastewater facilities can even produce energy: in Aarhus, Denmark, a local water company has managed to transform a wastewater facility so that it also serves as a combined heat and power plant, delivering an energy surplus. The plant produces 90% more energy than it consumes, so the excess heat is routed into the cities district heating system, thereby reducing its carbon footprint.

Untapped potential

This takes us back to the beginning: if we saw money lying in the street, we would of course pick it up and put it in our pocket. Even on a busy day. And when it comes to cities, these simple solutions are just within our reach. With 80% of economic output and 70% of energy consumption occuring in cities, there is a huge amount of untapped potential. So let’s make the multiple benefits of energy efficiency common knowledge, and appreciate what can be achieved with existing technologies. It’s about identifying all the areas of opportunity and taking action now.

The Summit on the Global Agenda 2015 takes place in Abu Dhabi from 25-27 October. The report Top 10 Urban Innovations is available here. 

Author: Fleming Voetmann, Head of Sustainability & Public Affairs, Danfoss. Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities

Image: A woman walks at the Bund in front of the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai March 5, 2015. REUTERS/Aly Song