said Toderian<\/a>. \u201cHer team tracked me down in September last year and invited me. We share the same big ambition to change the conversation about better city-building and climate action.\u201d<\/p>\nThe exhibition majors on \u201ccities taking bolder climate action, going further and faster with fewer excuses,\u201d said Toderian. \u201cCities around the world [need] to inspire and challenge each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Major cities profiled, in addition to Paris, include Tokyo, Mexico City, Beijing, Los Angeles, London, Buenos Aires, and Seoul. There are also contributions from other global cities such as Barcelona, Rome, Stockholm, Helsinki, Medellin, Montreal, Brisbane, Auckland, and New Orleans. Lesser-known cities profiled include Cotonou in Benin; Hue City, Vietnam; Rabat, Morocco; and Nouakchott, Mauritania.<\/p>\n
Brent Toderian with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.<\/p>\n
Brent Toderian<\/p>\n
Actions highlighted include transforming dense and mixed-use communities around public transit; rethinking cars and providing people with more and better choices for getting around; creating new people-centric places, including transforming streets, new parks, urban greening, and integrating nature with density; and designing energy-intelligent cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cParis itself is an example of the challenge,\u201d said Toderian. \u201cIt\u2019s a city that leads in climate action, and yet proven ideas like protected bike lanes, which we know make cities better for everyone, can still be much more controversial than they should be, even after they\u2019re built and succeeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cParis is uniquely positioned to celebrate and platform bold action from cities all over the world,\u201d said Toderian. \u201cParis and Mayor Hidalgo have been the most inspiring in the world over the last 10 years, really exemplifying those key words \u201cfurther and faster. \u201cNot because they\u2019ve been perfect but because they\u2019ve been strategic, determined, and fearless.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, added Toderian, \u201cif we\u2019re honest with ourselves, we\u2019ll admit that many cities still need to take their first steps toward more sustainable city-making. And every city needs to go much further and faster. The powers that city leaders have to decide urban densities, land-use mix, transportation, infrastructure, and much more are game-changing for addressing the climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
A key takeaway from the exhibition is the need for cities to tame cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur primary goal must be fewer and smaller cars that are driven less,\u201d said Toderian, and electrifying the global fleet, while welcome, isn\u2019t a panacea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need better cars, and electric cars are part of the solution,\u201d argues Toderian. \u201cBut a better energy source for the same number of cars, or even more and bigger cars, won\u2019t get us where we need to be, and can induce more driving and higher emissions because we think those cars are \u2018green.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSmart cities,\u201d he continued, \u201care transforming space previously surrendered to cars into new places for people, and re-introducing nature and green space into everyday urban life\u2014to make cities more liveable and sustainable simultaneously.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re constantly told that all of this is too hard or too expensive. But it\u2019s only as hard as we choose to make it, and it\u2019s a lot cheaper than the huge cost of continuing to make the wrong choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need our cities to be a lot better: more responsible, more sustainable, and a lot more action-oriented. To do that, our cities need to inspire each other to take bigger, bolder action with a lot fewer excuses. To me, that\u2019s what this exhibition is all about: all of us\u2014citizens of all ages and leaders alike\u2014inspiring and challenging each other to go much further and faster with real urban climate action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bold artworks by Shepard Fairey (OBEY) adorn the H\u00f4tel de Ville fa\u00e7ade in Paris. Brent Toderian A free,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-30184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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