Local Action, Global Achievement
Countries and cities around the world are embarking on smart city projects to make their countries and cities smarter. But, how are these smart city projects contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is an ambitious global effort to be delivered by 2030 entailing overarching global action on inclusiveness, socio-economic resiliency and environmental protection. Considering cities house half of the world’s population and contribute to two-thirds of the global GDPs, our cities are important actors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. All 17 cross-cutting SDGs act as urban targets for urban actors when driving action and investment in smart urban development.
It is clear that not all cities will work at the same speed or have similar priorities or even the same starting point. Hence, localizing the SDGs at the local and regional city level becomes pivotal that will encourage and lead cities leaders to embrace the global goals. Given the scale, complexity and interconnectedness of smart city services, cities need integrated strategies, project implementation and sound methods for monitoring and reporting to align to the specific goals.
Why are SDGs important in Smart City Planning?
• Half of humanity (3.5 billion people) lives in cities today and 5 billion people are projected to live in cities by 2030
• 95% of urban expansion takes place in emerging and developing countries
• Cities account for 80% of energy consumption and generate over 70% of GHG emissions
• Rapid urbanization is exerting pressure on urban infrastructures including housing, transport, water, electricity and public health systems
• Shortage of digitally skilled workforces in driving smart economy and smart community transformations
• Access to food could rise significantly in urban areas
• 70% of the world population will be living in urban settlements by 2050
The 5th edition of Cities 4.0 with the overarching theme ‘Local Action, Global Achievement’ is aimed at facilitating discussions and dialogues on strategies for developing a practical roadmap to localise the SDGs for local actions on project implementation and monitoring. The conference will further discuss strategies in building climate-smart cities ranging from measuring urban greenhouse gas emissions to implementing urban vegetation and smart waste management. Various aspects of technological and capacity development in making the success of smart city will also be discussed by the international experts over the two-day conference.
Cities 4.0 2022 Conference and Exhibitions
