Since the dawn of the Anthropocene, rapid urbanisation has posed formidable risks to planetary health, which is further exacerbated by poor planning and design. When the Limits to Growth report was published in 1972, it generated a prescient warning on the biocapacity and ecological footprint due to burgeoning economic activity, largely driven by urban areas. Half a century later, unplanned urban growth has precipitated socio-economic-environmental problems. As per World Cities Report, cities and urban agglomerates account for about 70 percent of all greenhouse gases. Only 12 percent of the cities globally reach pollution control targets and a colossal 9 out of 10 people breathe air contaminated with high levels of pollutants. Urban areas also produce 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste annually, which is further expected to increase by 70 percent in 2050. In the evolving context, it is pertinent to advance climate action and resilience through an urban lens worldwide.
The G20 nations account for approximately 80 percent carbon emissions globally and as the greatest carbon emitters in the world, it is incumbent upon the G20 to respond to climate crises. To mitigate climate change and improve planetary health, G20 has adopted the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Within the G20 ecosystem, a formal engagement group called Urban 20 convened by C40 cities and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) has been launched to collectively raise critical urban discourse on sustainable development of G20 cities. Despite the commitment, the efforts by G20 to alleviate climate change remain faltering.
Healthy cities and climate goals: Peas in a Pod
Recently, there has been a perceptible interest in the inextricable linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals: 3 (Health for All), 11 (Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable) and 13 (Climate Action). The Urban 20 Communiqué also urges G20 leaders to create safe, sustainable and healthy cities. However, most of the discourse on climate change remains encumbered by ‘Climate Reductionism’ and neglects the complex systems and linkages with other sectors. Analogous to the overall health and well-being of individual, healthy cities which are inclusive, equitable, and sustainable are influenced by similar behavioural, social, economic, political and ecological determinants. A healthy cities approach can play a catalytic role in environmental sustainability as many action areas to attain healthy cities are intertwined to concomitantly improve human and environmental health.
Consumption and environment: It starts at home
Households’ consumption of food, water, energy, and transportation exerts enormous environmental pressure. Globally, households account for nearly three-fourths of global carbon emissions via either direct household energy use or embodied as supply chain emissions. Worldwide, the consumption-based carbon emissions stand at 4.69 tonnes per capita which has increased by 10 percent from 1990 to 2021. The households consume 29 percent of global energy and consequently, contribute to 21 percent of resultant CO2 emissions. The world consumes 35 kg of plastic per capita, two-thirds of which is generated by urban households. Further, 13 percent urban population use polluting fuels and technologies for cooking, 38 percent lack safely managed sanitation services and the number of city dwellers lack safely managed drinking water has increased by more than 50 percent since 2000, as per latest reports. In the G20 nations, particulate air pollution via consumption, mostly in urban areas results in two million premature deaths annually.
Individuals, interactions and climate-resilient healthy cities
Consumption-led carbon footprint can be attributed to consumers’ behaviour and lifestyles which responds to the wider built environment of the cities. Despite the large ‘mitigation’ and ‘adjusting’ impacts expected from lifestyle changes, behaviours are embedded in complex cultural contexts, provisioning systems and social practices. Thus, creating a ‘sustainable lifestyles’ movement requires two-pronged action, through voluntary efforts by citizens and mediation via policies and regulations. However, mutually reinforcing demand-side solutions targeting consumption, behaviours and lifestyles have not been adequately addressed in the past. Recently, in order to spearhead the demand-driven mass movement for individual and community action for the environment, India announced LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) campaign at COP26, which places the environmentally conscious lifestyle at the centre of climate discourse.
Nudge for LiFE
The LiFE campaign envisages Behavioural Change Communication via ‘Nudge’ to alter individual’s decision-making with choice architecture. People’s decisions on what and how much to eat, purchase, and travel can have serious ramifications on planetary health. Campaigns such as LiFE calls for a mass movement to change consumption patterns by enabling the transmission of ideas and behaviours through ‘population behaviour contagion’ that can have a significant impact in terms of healthy population and cities, while simultaneously targeting SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and Production), SDG 7 (clean energy), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).
Local governance: An agent of change
An integrated lattice of action targeting consumption patterns at a decentralised level is key to climate-resilient cities. However, local governments do not often find a role in global climate negotiations. An integrated and convergent planning, both vertically between levels of government and horizontally across all governance sectors impacting the initiative is warranted. It is thus, recommended to create a separate taskforce and Sustainable Cities Advisory Committee at the municipality level to establish a long-term action plan with tracking of measurable local targets.
Sustainable consumption can be advanced through urban local bodies via myriad channels such as:
a) Awareness: Raising environmental awareness of consumers on ecological footprint, product life-cycles in tandem-with promotion of healthy lifestyles via adopting environment-friendly alternatives
b) Market Strategies: Promoting firms with intricate links between eco-performance and health of individuals, supporting innovative procurement processes and short supply chains and supporting implementation of eco-labelling strategies for consumer’s empowerment
c) Guidelines: Imposing standards and norms for pollution and entrusting territorial authorities with necessary powers for implementation and evaluation
d) Policies: Rolling out transport and mobility policies facilitating the use of soft transport and car sharing; providing the access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport system; establishing structures such as ecological zone, public and green spaces; developing land-use policies promoting compact urban design and promulgating circular economy via energy efficiency, waste management and recycling
e) Regulations: Ensuring environmental and energy efficiency standards for buildings; enforcing polluter-pays principle in form of carbon tax on fuel, congestion charge and differential property tax; establishing food safety standards and introducing other financial incentives and disincentives to reinforce environmentally sustainable behaviour.
A bundle of social, market and policy instruments can be engaged by local bodies towards the trajectory to healthy cities. An ecosystem comprising the Pro-Planet People (with a shared commitment to adopt and promote environmentally friendly lifestyles) as proposed in the LiFE movement can act as a springboard for a community engagement model to catapult planetary health. India’s G20 presidency can provide a unique opportunity to internationalise this movement through peer-to-peer government cooperation and promote U20 cities as global actors by integrating sustainability and health planning into urban planning processes.
This essay is a part of the commentary series on G20-Think20 Task Force 3: LiFE, Resilience, and Values for Wellbeing.
