Human Settlements, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning
Publication Year
2014
Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
The shift from rural to more urban societies is a global trend with significant consequences for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change mitigation. Across multiple dimensions, the scale and speed of urbanization is unprecedented: more than half of the world population live in urban areas and each week the global urban pop-ulation increases by 1.3 million. Today there are nearly 1000 urban agglomerations with populations of 500,000 or greater; by 2050, the global urban population is expected to increase by between 2.5 to 3 billion, corresponding to 64 % to 69 % of the world population (robust evidence, high agreement). Expansion of urban areas is on average twice as fast as urban population growth, and the expected increase in urban land cover during the first three decades of the 21st century will be greater than the cumulative urban expansion in all of human history (medium evidence, high agreement). Urban areas generate around 80% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (medium evi-dence, medium agreement). Urbanization is associated with increases in income, and higher urban incomes are correlated with higher con-sumption of energy use and GHG emissions (medium evidence, high agreement).
Book Title
AR5 Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change
Chapter
12
Pages
923-1000
Publisher
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change