Gehl at Climate Week NYC

Last month at Climate Week NYC, Gehl and RMI debuted a piece of thinking that I’m keen to get feedback on from people in climate and urbanism. It addresses what we see as an obvious gap in the decarbonization discussion: how the shape of the city itself changes demand for energy and can be used as a powerful lever to reduce emissions.

While there’s much vital discussion at COP and Climate Week about supply-side energy transition, we argue that a different urban planning paradigm would make this transition ‘much’ easier by deeply reducing demand through more efficient and effective urban form. This paradigm would allow us to reduce the need to manufacture 2x Europe’s worth of EVs, 3-4 America’s worth of solar farms, 2 Japan’s worth of wind turbines. (And so many fewer battles with infrastructure siting, permitting, NIMBYism, lawyers, bankers, etc)

I know this is preaching to the choir among folks who are already advocating for compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented cities. But we suspect there are many in infrastructure finance, global development, and the general climate conversation, who could add this lever to their arsenal.

Some highlights from the research

1. Per capita emissions in compact, mixed-use, multi-modal cities are typically 2-3x lower than the countries in which those cities are located — regardless of whether the countries’ average per capita emissions are low or high.

2. After controlling for wealth, urban form is the factor most responsible for the difference between per capita emissions at a country level (even more than the grid mix or nature of the economy). Countries with more compact, mixed, multi-modal cities and neighborhoods vs. countries with lower density, dispersed, car-dependent cities.

3. Overall, patterns of urban development are heading in the wrong direction; urban land area growing 67 percent faster than urban populations (though there are some recent glimmers of hope from the largest cities).

4. Business as usual patterns of development threaten 5-8% of remaining global carbon sinks.

5. Sprawl drives food waste; more infrequent bulk shopping vs. buying what you need when you need it from the neighborhood grocery. Household food waste has a strong inverse correlation to population density.

6. Health, equity, and economic development co-benefits come along at every stage of this paradigm shift.

Thanks to our great collaborators and speakers who helped put together this research and Climate Week NYC’s discussion including Rushad Nanavatty, Julia Meisel, Brett Merriam, Wallace Cotton, Benjamin Holland, Yuki Numata, Marissa Maze, Jackie Lombardi, Rafael Marengoni, Zack Subin, Anna Zetkulic, Robin Chase, Majora Carter, and Felipe Ramírez Buitrago.