Blog Posts: Urban Transformations

Climate change is an important driver of urban inequality. These five ideas show climate action can help cities become more equitable.

Future cities will need a near-zero-carbon footprint, an end to dependence on fossil fuels and an ability to manage weather extremes while finding ways to lift up already vulnerable and marginalized groups. To envision these cities of the future, we have to demand more of our collective imagination.

Projects like Barcelona's "superblocks" and Atlanta's Beltline are showing cities how to adapt to growing environmental and economic pressures.

Positive change is happening in cities, but it’s often lost in a sea of bad news about air pollution, rising costs of living and traffic jams. Projects from Dar es Salaam, Medellín, Pune and more provide inspiration.

Some schools in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania see more than a dozen of their students injured or killed in road crashes every year. Traffic engineer Ayikai Charlotte Poswayo wants to change that.

Durban's Warwick Junction was once a dangerous marketplace slated for demolition. Today, nearly half a million shoppers pass through its colorful stalls every day, thanks to a collaborative effort from street vendors, local authorities and a non-profit.

More than a dozen students are killed or injured in road crashes every year at some schools in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. One project is helping kids get to school safely simply by making small changes to city street designs.

Pune's waste pickers used to be treated much like the garbage they collected. India's first worker-owned waste-pickers' cooperative elevated their status while cleaning up Pune's mountains of trash.

Medellin used to be the murder capital of the world. Today, new businesses, plazas, libraries and schools can be seen throughout the city's hillside neighborhoods. An aerial tram system is at the heart of Medellin's transformation.