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Climate change is a serious issue all over the world. The frequency of severe weather storms increasing, rising temperatures, melting glaciers, warming oceans, and rising sea levels are all direct consequences of climate change. Major cities are hubs of climate change because of the sheer amount of people that generate mass amounts of pollution.
To minimize the effects that major cities have on climate change, they adopt solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Here are four of the ways that these cities are looking to minimize their carbon footprint.
Utilize Renewable Resources
As previously mentioned, cities have large amounts of people in them, and those people require large amounts of energy for their everyday lives. The first way to reduce a carbon footprint is to turn to renewable resources as an energy alternative. The most common renewable resource that is being implemented in major cities is solar power.
The roofs of massive skyscrapers that occupy mass amounts of space in major cities have installed solar panels that can power a portion of those buildings. Also, typical average houses can place solar panels on their roofs as well.
There are other renewable resources as well that can be implemented in major cities, as well as all cities. Wind turbines can convert the wind into energy, but these turbines are large, massive structures that require a lot of space. This makes it tough to place them in condensed cities. The other type of energy is hydropower, which requires water.
Cities located by rivers, or significant bodies of water, could utilize this type of renewable energy.
Increase Public Transportation
Cars are a large contributor to a city’s carbon footprint. The exhaust produced by cars contains carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect. With the thousands of people who live in cities, thousands of cars are constantly traveling through the city.
While it may not be possible to eliminate all cars from transportation to a town, it may be possible to eliminate most. This can be done using public transportation. Bussing systems that travel through the city can transport mass groups of people from one destination to another. While a bus still contributes exhaust to the city’s carbon footprint, it eliminates thousands of cars from transportation, reducing the carbon footprint greatly. It also reduces the amount of gasoline consumed.
Adapt Green Buildings
An essential feature of a green city has green buildings. A green building is a building that utilizes many different energy-efficient technologies. Some of the features of a green building include rainwater collection systems, solar PV on the property, good insulation, and energy-efficient appliances.
One of the essential qualities of a green building is to be LEED-certified. LEED stands for leadership in energy and environmental design. For a building to be LEED-certified, it must have sustainable site development, save water, be energy efficient, have a careful material selection, and have good indoor environmental quality.
Transforming current buildings to green buildings will contribute significantly to reducing a city’s carbon footprint. It takes time, but it is worth making the change in the long run.
Make Energy More Efficient
It can be difficult to power an entire city with renewable resources. So, to stay green, cities must make smart and efficient energy choices. For example, LED light bulbs require less energy than a typical light bulb does. While electricity is still being used, the LED bulbs are much more efficient. By making energy-conscious decisions like these, not only will cities save money on energy usage, but they will also be reducing their carbon footprint.
It does not only pertain to large buildings in major cities either. Households making energy-efficient decisions is essential as well.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that fighting climate change is an ongoing process. It does not only pertain to major cities. While major cities are trying to reduce their carbon footprint, it will take an effort from everyone to successfully combat climate change.