Environment
2011 Gwangju Summit of the Urban Environmental Accords
Urban Environmental Accords hopes to curb GHG emissions from Urban Environments
T
hey are the most important modern phenomena facing the population today: urbanization and our changing climate, and they are inextricably linked. Urban environments generate creative thinking, suspect art, innovation, nifty technologies and social change. Even with such contributions, urbanites are criticized for their inefficient energy consumption from vehicle useage, home utilities, convenience products and affluent lifestyles. They’re a little staggering, the statistics which chronicle people’s excessive consumption and inefficient use of energy, the major contributors to Green House Gases (GHG)’s. We’ve heard it before from the news and in journals, so I will attempt to frame it differently. Let’s compare (in tCO2e, tonnes of CO2 equivalent); Seoul emits 4.1 tCO2e per capita while Tokyo emits 4.89 tCO2e. That doesn’t look so bad, a mere 0.79 difference. But that’s probably because a tonne of carbon dioxide is difficult to imagine. When you think in terms of the weight of carbon dioxide, picture a tonne of ice or better yet dry ice—frozen carbon dioxide. Suddenly, 790 kilograms of dry ice per person per year comes across as a significant difference. London’s emissions are a colossal 9.6 tCO3e and higher still are New York City’s at 10.5 tCO3e; illustrations of how Seoul’s and Tokyo’s emissions are benefitted by population density.
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Discussion in Vienna City Hall
made us aware of the need to change our values from “conspicuous consumption” to “conspicuous frugality”. His words in the 1970’s reminded people that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world and subject to the same injury as the rest of the eco-system. A generation later and there is still a reluctance to accept the need to change. We believe that in order to advance as a species we need to “develop,” and develop is synonymous with increase, build and expand. Increase our possessions, build expectations beyond those of our parents and expand our coverage of the globe. With such a psyche it is difficult to believe that we may need to reduce our energy consumption, or at the very least fully utilize it, to advance with the environment still intact.
According to estimates from the International Energy Agency, (IEA) urban areas account for 71% of energyrelated carbon emissions. They also expect that number to rise to 76% by 2030. If all production and consumption based emissions that result from an affluent lifestyle and convenience purchasing habits are included, this figure increases to 80%.
At a talk at Catawba College, Brown said that "unless civilization changes its ways,...we're in a race between natural tipping points and political tipping points what we need most of all is for the market to tell the environmental truth.” Brown will speak again at the Gwangju Urban Environmental Accords (UEA), but this time directly to city mayors, spurring action.
Lester R Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute,
This October the UEA wishes to challenge the
Gwangju News June 2011