Why We Need Sustainable Cities

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities is a very important goal in its own right, but it also affects the other goals within the 2030 Agenda.

Goal 11 targets include ensuring adequate housing, ensuring accessible transportation, enhancing inclusive urbanisation, protecting natural and cultural heritage, decreasing the human impact from disasters, reducing the adverse environmental impact of cities and providing safe open spaces.

In 2018, it was estimated that 55% of people lived in urban areas with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs expecting this to increase to 68% by 2050. This is approximately 2.5 extra billion people in urban areas by 2050 with almost 90% of this 2.5 billion expected to be in Africa and Asia. India China and Nigeria will account for approximately 875 million people in urban population growth, a third of the projections over the coming 30 years.

Despite only accounting for 55% of the world’s population, cities consume 78% of the world’s energy according to UN Habitat. This year, over 90% of COVID-19 cases have been recorded in urban areas. Cities have a major impact on both social and environmental aspects of the other 16 goals.

Our cities play such an important role in our economy. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that although only 55% of the…