User:Mattmcloughlin/Climate change and cities

Climate Change and Cities
With half of the world population residing in urban areas, there will be an increase in energy usage that comes with Climate Change. One of these will be AC, since climate change comes with higher temperatures many people will start needed more cooling systems, so this results in more air conditioning and newer models of cooling systems. Rising temperatures will also affect our water supply. As it gets hotter, people will want more and more water resulting in a decrease in the water supply. The amount of people in these cities will likely create a large shortage of water and other resources that will help alleviate the heat for many individuals.

Africa
Africa is urbanizing faster than any other continent and it is estimated that by 2030, more than one billion Africans will live in cities. This rapid urbanization, coupled with the many interlinked and complex challenges as a result of climate change, pose a significant barrier to Africa's sustainable development. Much of this Urban Development is informal, with urban residents settling in informal settlements and slums often on the outskirts of cities. This phenomena poses lower income countries, many in Africa, as being ideal candidates for increases in infrastructural sustainability. A recent study found that in "countries with per capita incomes of below USD 15,000 per year (at PPP-adjusted 2011 USD) carbon pricing has, on average, progressive distributional effects" and that "carbon pricing tends to be regressive in countries with relatively higher income," indicating that carbon taxing and shifting carbon prices might incentivize governments to shift to green energy as the baseline energy consumption method for developing peri-urban areas. Although urbanization is seen in a positive light, the effects of it can be negative on those being urbanized.

Zoe

China
Historically, data has shown that "climate change has been shaping the Delta and its socio-economic development" and that such socio-economic development in the region "has shaped its geography and built environment, which, however, are not adaptable to future climate change". Thus, it has been stated that "It is imperative to adopt policies and programs to mitigate and adapt to climate change" in the YRD, specifically, policies that are aimed at reducing the impact of particular climate threats based on the YRD's geography. This includes the region's current infrastructure in the mitigation of flood disasters and promotion of efficient energy usage at the local level.

Zoe

South Asia
Khulna, Bangladesh is also facing many issues surrounding water insecurity as well. As sea levels begin to rise, due to climate change, salinity will move inwards, reducing the amount of safe drinking water available to the people of Khulna. There are plans being put in place to make the quality of water in cities better, but this decreases the availability to those in the informal uraban areas. As of now they rely on using on as little water as possible, specifically for their crops.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2018.1530967

Climate change and cities

Adding a citation to this sentence from the Clean Air Act section of Climate change and cities:

"It is within this context that while beneficial, the Clean Air Act alone cannot stand as the only firm rationale for climate policies in the United States moving forward."

Citing this source to the sentence above:

https://www.proquest.com/docview/1735899750/fulltext/8FC2F2D895704BF5PQ/1?accountid=8576 -Zoe

Main article: Climate change in Brazil
The United Nations Development Programme highlights the Amazon rainforest as serving a "key function in the global climate systems," granted its profound usefulness in capturing CO2 emissions. UN research has indicated that because of Brazil's climate being so intimately reliant on the health of the rainforest, deforestation measures are currently seen as having adverse effects on the rainforest's "natural adaptive capacities" towards extreme climate shifts, thus predisposing Brazil to what are expected to be increased volatility in temperature and rainfall patterns. Rapid urbanization in other countries will also result in higher need for resources. This includes resources that will cause further deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest to obtain. This will inevitably create a lot more Climate issues, as we continue to lose more trees in the Amazon Rainforest.