ICLEI Links: 16 October 2015
Welcome to the latest edition of ICLEI Links, our roundup of sustainability-related news and commentary from around the web!
City Stories
The SDGs don’t adequately spell out cities’ role in implementation – the International Institute for Environmental Development argues that there is no clear indication of how the SDGs will be achieved, by whom or with what funding.
The green urbanization myth – a brief history of the idea of “decoupling” from nature, and some thoughts on why rewilding is unlikely to happen even if agricultural sprawl is minimized by technology at some point in the future.
The Digital Life of Walkable Streets – Walkonomics is trying to map the most walkable streets in cities by looking at the tags on some of the 1.8 billion photos posted to the internet each day.
Mumbai Streets Display Equality on Sundays – in Mumbai, footpaths have been increasingly eliminated, forcing pedestrians to share the roads with cars. Equal Streets is a movement highlighting this imbalance, and every Sunday they reclaim space for use by pedestrians and for events.
How to create healthier cities – livechat – to be hosted by the Guardian on Thursday 29th October, this webchat will look at what cities and their partners can do to combat poor health.
Joburg Today video report on EcoMobility World Festival 2015 – great summary of the EcoMobility World Festival 2015 so far, featuring interviews with Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Parks Tau, Reykjavik Deputy Mayor Bjorn Blondal, and ICLEI Deputy Secretary General Monika Zimmerman.
Climate Change Stories
World will pass crucial 2C global warming limit, experts warn – the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics has crunched the data from the over 150 Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC in advance of COP21.
Ten clear indicators our climate is changing – the disappearance of glaciers, sea level rise, ocean heat content, sea surface temperature – this article uses ten graphs to provide as much evidence as possible.
First Draft of New Climate Change Agreement Presented to Governments – the ADP Co-Chairs were empowered by parties to cut the document, and they now have a proposal. This will be discussed at the Bonn talks, which start next Monday.
Energy Stories
Four renewable energies you may not have heard of – these being tidal power, ocean currents, bladeless turbines and floating turbines. Some are more realistic and advanced than others, but all are interesting ambitions.
Sweden Aspires To Become The World’s First Fossil Fuel–Free Nation – the country already acquired two thirds of its electricity generation capacity from clean sources.
Latest Innovation Could Be A Game Changer For Solar Cell Manufacturing – researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISE) in Freiburg have developed a technology that reduces the costly waste of silicon wafers during the production of solar cells.
Canadian firm opens pilot project to pull carbon from air – the company is funded by private investors including Bill Gates. According to the CEO, this is the first time CO2 can be taken out of the atmosphere and used for other purposes.
Is nuclear fusion about to change our world? – it’s the holy grail of clean energy, but no one has ever been able to make it happen. CNN provides a nice summary of the problem, and the reason people keep trying, in this article.
