UN urges cities to take up climate action

The United Nations has urged cities to reduce climate anxiety by improving air quality, expanding urban green and blue infrastructure and providing other co-benefits for sustainable development around the world as well as climate adaptation.

According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change, urban areas are not doing enough to limit global warming to the crucial 1.5 Degrees Celsius threshold.

The Scientific community led by Sudarmanto Nugroho urged countries to substitute conventional vehicles with electric ones.

 These vehicles are powered by low-carbon electricity which will therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-based transport.

“Investments in active transport infrastructure, combined with the deployment of electric micro-mobility for example e-scooters and e-bikes can further support greenhouse gas emissions reductions,” he said.

UN noted that urban areas should change industrial emissions and that it was still possible to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

“Reducing industry emissions will entail coordinated action throughout value chains to promote all mitigation options, including demand management, energy and materials efficiency, circular material flows and transformation changes in production processes,” the report explains.

Mitigation action in the building sector brings health gains through improved indoor air quality and thermal comfort.

Another IPCC expert Yamina Saheb urged the building sector to focus on decarbonizing the building stock as a way of reducing greenhouse emissions.

“In some global scenarios, existing buildings, if retrofitted and buildings yet to be built are projected to approach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050," she noted.

"This will be achieved if policy packages, which combine ambitious sufficiency, efficiency and renewable energy measures are effectively implemented and barriers to decarbonization are removed," Saheb added.

Transport PS Joseph Njoroge accompanied by Kenya Power MD Rosemary Oduor flagged off the first electric Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) in Kenya at the Kenya International Conference in Nairobi, last month.

In a statement, Oduor said that the K6 electric bus from BasiGo would give operators a new alternative that is more affordable, convenient and clean.

The Allied Market Research states that in over a year, just one electric car on the road can save an average of 1.5 million grams of carbon dioxide which simply translates to electric cars giving us cleaner streets.