How Middle East cities can meet the sustainability challenge

How Middle East cities can meet the sustainability challenge

Fri, 2019-12-13 23:28

DUBAI: As the cities of today grow into those of the future, they will encounter daunting sustainability challenges.

Arguably, the most significant factor that all urban centers will have to take into account is climate change.

With temperatures projected to rise, new infrastructure and operational challenges will have to be tackled by city authorities.

"We need to manage our greenhouse gas emissions while managing our economy,“ said Fahed Al-Hammadi, director of climate change at the UAE's Ministry of Climate Change.

"We must understand future trends in the region and how we will be affected in different sectors. We must engage with the private sector because we can't work as a government alone,“ he added.

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Percentage of its lifetime a car in the US is parked on average.

"We need to attract more 'green' investors, and ensure that the capacity of renewable energy we're transitioning to can cope with the transformation.“

Speaking at a recent summit in Dubai on emerging technologies, Al-Hammadi visualized cities of the future contributing to a reduction in emissions “” transportation currently contributes a third of total emissions “” and thus helping governments achieve their emission-reduction targets.

Senseable City Lab at MIT collects data on car movement to improve urban transport. (Supplied)

Cities' sustainability