Science already knows how to make cities sustainable, but initiatives conflict with political issues

Maria Fernanda Ziegler | FAPESP Agency – Cities play a central role in combating global climate change. In addition to being a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, extreme weather events – such as floods, droughts or extreme heat – tend to affect more people in urban contexts. However, while the challenges of urban sustainability involve science, technology and innovation, the biggest hurdle lies in political implementation.

This is what urban sustainability experts demonstrated during a debate held on August 5, at the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo (ALEP), within the scope of the ILP-FAPESP Science and Innovation Course. The event was It was broadcast online. to FAPESP Agency.

“We are living in a time of great challenges and it is important to realize that we need a shift in the development model. The current model is very predatory to the environment and ignores social inequality. We have enough tools to address these issues. Knowledge and science have the power to address this, but we are not moving forward for political reasons. The solutions are there, but we continue with the same problems for political reasons,” said Jorge Abrahão, CEO of the Sustainable Cities Institute.

According to Abrahão, the goal of large cities is to become places where citizens can travel to work or some services in a maximum of 15 or 30 minutes. They provide health, security, education, mobility and housing in a decentralized way. “The science tells us and we know what is best for each of these elements, at least to start operations, but we have not made this structural change,” he added.

Using data from the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) methodology, the Sustainable Cities Institute has developed the Index for Sustainable Cities Development (IDSC-BR), a tool that seeks to identify the challenges and progress of Brazilian cities based on one hundred general indicators.

In addition to each city’s score and ranking, the index also displays SDG dashboards, which provide a visual representation of the performance – and level of development – ​​of municipalities on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that make up the Sustainable Development Goals. Agenda 2030 United Nations (UN)

He stressed that “as a result, Brazil is the only country in the world that monitors the development of all its cities in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.”

However, Abrahão notes that a recent survey of nearly 200 countries that have committed to the agenda showed that progress has not exceeded 20%, if that. In Brazil, progress has also been less than desired, according to the International Information Support Center (IDSC-BR). “Seven out of ten Brazilian cities have a low or very low level of sustainable development,” he said.

Of the 100 worst cities, 83 are in the Amazon. “How are we going to address the problem of deforestation if we can’t solve the problem of cities, generate income, provide education and health? Without that, people will work illegally,” he stressed.

Based on this index, it is possible to make interesting analyses about the situation of Brazilian cities and the difficulty of advancing sustainability due to political issues, Abrahão said.

This is the case in the cities of Rio Grande do Sul, which suffered major flooding in May this year, with more than two million people affected and nearly 80,000 displaced. Through the IDSC-BR maps, it is possible to observe, for example, the relationship between the affected municipalities and the lack of compliance with climate risk management and prevention. “Of the 497 cities in Rio Grande do Sul, 476 have not implemented even half of a set of 20 measures and prevention plans that could mitigate the effects of the rains,” he said.

systematic approach

Professor at the Faculty of Applied Arts of the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP), Karen Regina De Castro Marines He believes that planning in urban management requires tools and processes appropriate to different levels, and not only focusing on the city as a whole, but on neighborhoods, streets and plots.

An example given by Marins is the thermal contrast caused by densification in the Belenzinho neighborhood in the eastern part of the capital São Paulo. “There has been densification in several neighborhoods with a metro station. The areas have been occupied and vertically close to low-rise buildings, creating surface temperature differences of up to 13 degrees Celsius. In many cases, the block is in the shade all the time,” he explained. “Others are in the sun and the result is cities with thermal gradients linked to the occupation and not just the climate, which affects citizens’ perception of the climate.”

For Marines, in addition to considering smaller scales such as neighborhoods and land parcels, urban planning requires a systematic approach.

“More than 80% of emissions in the city of São Paulo are related to transportation. That’s why promoting public transportation is so important, but there is no integration between security policies and urban mobility, for example. We have to remember that people walk to public transportation, and if there is no security for that, we will not be able to achieve the goal of the 2030 Agenda,” he said.

“So we realized that public policies end up being a little bit detailed, or there is difficulty in implementation. São Paulo is a very rich city, with a structure, but there is difficulty in implementation. There is even a lack of coordination between different sectors in multidisciplinary actions – such as, for example, security and mobility – within the public administration.”

Still in the realm of systematic approach, Jose Antonio Bobim de Oliveirafrom the São Paulo Business School at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Eaesp-FGV), highlighted that many health policies are sustainability policies. “Like, for example, getting people to walk [a pé]He pointed out that science has already shown that working across sectors brings mutual benefits.

“That’s why it’s important to work with departments that have the biggest budgets, like health and education. But it’s essential to analyze what we call Ability and capacity“That is, the secretariat may be able, but not have sufficient resources, to implement an action or project. In the case of Brazil, it is often the opposite: there are resources, but there is a lack of capacity,” said Popim.

The group, curated by Puppim, recently launched Green and Blue Infrastructure Guidewith step-by-step instructions for making cities sustainable (Read more at: agency.fapesp.br/40644).

This publication follows an approach known as the water-energy-food nexus. According to this logic, uncontrolled urban growth, climate change and biodiversity loss can generate food insecurity, water and energy shortages, as consumption of these three elements increases in the coming decades, especially in cities.

The starting point for the work was a curiosity about how cities innovate and learn. In this sense, the group worked with 82 cities, in a kind of global survey, to understand how transformation happens in different locations.

“At the moment, there is an abundance of data that is essential for formulating public policies and for demanding more action from the population. However, management needs to improve. Because what we see today is that access to information does not necessarily guarantee that political decisions are made,” said Popim.

The event was also attended by Natasha Jones, Executive Director of the São Paulo Legislative Institute (ILP), and Carlos Americo PachecoDirector, Chairman of the Technical and Administrative Council of FAPESP.

The full discussion can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jfx21ytXTg.