Image: Kyle Hasegawa/Flickr
11. Sustainable cities and communities

11. Sustainable cities and communities

More than half of the world’s population now live in urban areas. By 2050, that figure will have risen to 6.5 billion people – two-thirds of all humanity. Extreme poverty is often concentrated in urban spaces, and national and city governments struggle to accommodate the rising population in these areas. Making cities safe and sustainable means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, and upgrading slum settlements. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces.

Read our stories to learn more about SDG Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities

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Image: Willis Chong/Wikipedia
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SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities is supported by ABB

News

Shivangi Sultania
The Jaipur-based waste management NGO had faced resistance when it first tried to work with informal workers to solve the city's sanitation problem. As its CSO, Sultania looked into providing better social security for the workers.
Iloilo Greenpeace Philippines
The environmental watchdog launches its first local group outside of Metro Manila, which aims to protect conservation in the province that is home to coastal resources like mangroves and the endangered Irrawady dolphins.
Orangutan_Deforestation_Indonesia
The forest loss was driven by clearing for oil palm plantations by well-connected local elites, rather than smallholders, according to advocacy group Rainforest Action Network (RAN).
Dead_Coral_Bleaching_Turtle
IPCC climate science report seek to enlist all people in last-ditch push to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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Opinion

Secretariat
It can provide a wider choice of green products such as energy saving appliances, e-vehicles, and sustainable building materials. Government departments can be mandated to purchase such products, and the aggregation of demand can nudge manufacturers to reduce the carbon footprint of their products and seek green certification.
Pipeline_Water_Mumbai_India
This week’s United Nations 2023 Water Conference in New York, the first such gathering since 1977, is a unique opportunity to discuss water security and to tackle the crisis head-on.
Power_Plant_Bhutan
Countries like Colombia should plan to provide for communities whose livelihoods were previously tied to fossil fuels.
Water_Crisis_Somalia
In the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report, nine of the ten biggest risks for the next decade have a water-related component.
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Videos

Residents fight police
Mining operations at Altai Philippines Mining Corporation have been suspended for now, after week-long protests from locals of Sibuyan Island in Romblon, who claimed the extraction of nickel ore will disrupt the island’s intact ecosystems.
Jovie Montajes, founder of Light of Hope PH
After 20 years without electricity, more than 50 households in Cebu's poorest district have been provided with solar energy, financed by carbon offsets.
Polestar video cover
EB Studio Polestar, a new entrant to Singapore’s electric car market, hopes to woo consumers by going the extra mile in sustainable design.
good meat eat just chicken bites
Novel food firms are dreaming big about market expansion, but first they must overcome diners' doubts and a huge cost hurdle.
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Podcasts

Alternative proteins podcast 2
EB Studio What are the latest trends in the alternative proteins industry today? The Eco-Business podcast discusses new hybrid products, more localised offerings and cheaper prices due to economies of scale.
Gojek vehicle in Indonesia
GoTo sustainability head Tanah Sullivan tells the Eco-Business Podcast that regulating net-zero claims would decarbonise Southeast Asia faster. Indonesia's biggest internet firm aims to cut emissions to zero by 2030 — a target critics say is unrealistic.
hotels podcast
Can the hotels sector, traditionally resource-intensive and wasteful, reinvent itself and go green? Eco-Business asks two hospitality executives about balancing post-Covid recovery, and if luxury can be made compatible with sustainability.
Keppel Bay Tower in Singapore
EB Studio The built environment's sprawling carbon footprint can be reined in by giving old buildings a 'climate makeover' as cities grow. The Eco-Business Podcast talks to Vinod Jethani about the benefits and challenges of retrofitting old buildings.
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