“Urban planning as a key to achieving the two-degree-target”

Climate-friendly infrastructures in cities provide urban planners with a large potential for emission reduction, according to a new study by Felix Creutzig (lead author) from the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and others, published in Nature Climate Change. “Indeed, 'going green’ now in terms of infrastructure and buildings could cut future emissions in half or about 10 gigatonnes CO₂ per year from 2040 onwards - the same quantity that is currently being emitted by the United States, Europe and India together,” writes MCC in a press release. “Urban planning and transport could become a major roadblock to reaching the two-degree-target. Once infrastructures are in place, they determine carbon emissions for nearly an entire century  - much longer even than coal-fired power stations,” said Creutzig.

Read the press release in English here and buy the nature article here.