New research quantifies the economic benefits of urban trees:

“Every tree in urban Tennessee provides an estimated $2.25 worth of measurable economic benefits every year. Might not seem like a lot, but with 284 million urban trees in the state, the payoff’s pretty big.

Through energy savings, air and water filtering and carbon storage, the urban trees of Tennessee account for more than $638 million in benefits, according to a report [PDF] conducted by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and released earlier this year.”

The Atlantic

via climateadaptation:

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How cities can get carbon down to zero | Grist

Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green.

Over 80 percent of Americans and over half of the world’s population live in cities. By 2050, over 70 percent of the global population is expected to be urban. By then — less than four decades away — human civilization needs to be carbon neutral if we are to have any hope of averting catastrophic climate change. Figuring out how to eliminate greenhouse pollution from cities is a necessary component of that challenge.

The city of Seattle, a global leader in the fight against climate change, commissioned the Stockholm Environment Institute, Cascadia Consulting Group, and ICF International “to develop a scenario [PDF] of how the city might be able to achieve carbon neutrality” by 2050:

  • Shifting to less GHG-intensive travel modes such as ride sharing, transit, walking, and biking, to produce a 30 percent reduction in per capita travel in light-duty vehicles by 2030 and a 50 percent reduction by 2050, relative to 2008 levels.

  • Dramatically increasing energy efficiency in building design and operations, as well as in vehicle efficiency, to produce over 30 percent in energy savings by 2030 (per capita in residential, per square foot in commercial, and per mile in vehicles) and over 50 percent by 2050, relative to 2008 levels.

  • Transitioning homes, businesses, and vehicles to lower-carbon energy sources: electricity (or possibly hydrogen) in the long run, biofuels as a bridging strategy for transportation until electric vehicles predominate, and to a much lesser extent, sustainable biomass sources (for district energy systems).

Chart.

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Book Review - ‘Green Metropolis - Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability,’ by David Owen - Review - NYTimes.com Owen, a staff writer for The New Yorker, makes a convincing case that Manhattan, Hong Kong and large, old European cities are inherently greener than less densely populated places because a higher percentage of their inhabitants walk, bike and use mass transit than drive; they share infrastructure and civic services more efficiently; they live in smaller spaces and use less energy to heat their homes (because those homes tend to share walls); and they’re less likely to accumulate a lot of large, energy-sucking appliances. People in cities use about half as much electricity as people who don’t, Owen reports, and the average New Yorker generates fewer greenhouse gases annually than “residents of any other American city, and less than 30 percent of the national average.” 

Book Review - ‘Green Metropolis - Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability,’ by David Owen - Review - NYTimes.com

Owen, a staff writer for The New Yorker, makes a convincing case that Manhattan, Hong Kong and large, old European cities are inherently greener than less densely populated places because a higher percentage of their inhabitants walk, bike and use mass transit than drive; they share infrastructure and civic services more efficiently; they live in smaller spaces and use less energy to heat their homes (because those homes tend to share walls); and they’re less likely to accumulate a lot of large, energy-sucking appliances. People in cities use about half as much electricity as people who don’t, Owen reports, and the average New Yorker generates fewer greenhouse gases annually than “residents of any other American city, and less than 30 percent of the national average.” 

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“From the freeways of Los Angeles to the canals of Amsterdam, cities are taking the lead in the fight to reduce carbon output. As world leaders squabble over how to cut greenhouse gases, city hall is becoming the best hope for climate action. Given their smaller jurisdictions, local officials can green-light eco-projects faster than nationwide schemes can be implemented. “We’re not going to wait for national politicians, we’re acting right now,” says Toronto Mayor David Miller, who plans to invest more than $1 billion in public transport and eco-friendly air-conditioning systems for buildings by 2017.”

Fighting Carbon Emissions: Cities Take the Lead - BusinessWeek

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smarterplanet:

IBM Commercial Data Transportation: Data Analysis Makes For Efficient Transportation Solutions

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/e… Harnessing real-time transportation data can help cut commute times and reduce carbon emissions. See how IBM is helping to build smarter transportation systems in places like Singapore and Stockholm.

This is data. Data generated by people moving through a city. People in cars on trains, on buses. When you can see data as it happens, it can help cut commute times by 50%, reduce carbon emissions by 14%. On a smarter planet, we can capture, analyze and use data in new ways to do what theyre doing in places like Singapore and Stockholm and build a smarter transportation system.

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My smarter city will make Chelsea tractors less attractive

SUV parked up

London doesn’t need so many SUVs, Range Rovers and so on. These cars block the roads, are more dangerous to pedestrians… and use more carbon than smaller cars. In London we have experimented with lower road taxes in the form of “congestion charging” for greener cars - but its intriguing to see Richmond Council bring the idea to parking.

Generally people complain that parking fine collection companies in London are too aggressive in their approach, but I must admit I like the idea of low carbon preferred parking.

Thanks lowcarboneconomy for bringing this to my attention.

James Governor, London, UK.

parking, cities, transport

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