A free, child-friendly exhibition staged in the City Hall, Paris, on how large cities around the world are fighting back against climate change has wowed audiences since opening last month. “From Paris to Belém: 10 years of global climate action” runs until mid-December at Hôtel de Ville. It celebrates the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP21 in Paris, which marked a turning point in the global commitment to climate action, and flags the next COP climate conference, scheduled to be held in Belém, Brazil, in November.
In Buenos Aires, the Metrobus 9 project has halved travel times and helped avoid the emission of over 70,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, highlights the exhibition, saying this is the equivalent of more than 8,000 return flights between Paris and Melbourne. In Medellín, Colombia, the creation of “green corridors” has lowered temperatures by 4°C in certain areas and encouraged the return of biodiversity.
Facts such as these are dotted throughout the exhibition, which was partly designed from a child’s point of view; Copi, a cartoon mascot, guides younger ones.
There are also photographic displays—including images of the Amazon by famed photographer Sebastião Salgado—and bold artwork by Shepard Fairey (OBEY); his murals adorn the Hôtel de Ville’s façade.
Much of the fact-finding for the exhibition was conducted by Canadian urban planning expert Brent Toderian, who was commissioned by the City of Paris and its mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
Hidalgo has transformed much of Paris with bold, climate-friendly initiatives, including a focus on cycling and walking in the city.
“Mayor Hidalgo herself had the idea of a big, bold exhibition at Paris City Hall,” said Toderian. “Her 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.”
The exhibition majors on “cities taking bolder climate action, going further and faster with fewer excuses,” said Toderian. “Cities around the world [need] to inspire and challenge each other.”
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, Africa; Hue City, Vietnam; Rabat, Morocco; and Nouakchott, Mauritania.
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.
“Paris itself is an example of the challenge,” said Toderian. “It’s 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’re built and succeeding.
“Paris is uniquely positioned to celebrate and platform bold action from cities all over the world,” said Toderian. “Paris and Mayor Hidalgo have been the most inspiring in the world over the last 10 years, really exemplifying those key words “further and faster. “Not because they’ve been perfect but because they’ve been strategic, determined, and fearless.”
However, added Toderian, “if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll 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.”
A key takeaway from the exhibition is the need for cities to tame cars.
“Our primary goal must be fewer and smaller cars that are driven less,” said Toderian, and electrifying the global fleet, while welcome, isn’t a panacea.
“We need better cars, and electric cars are part of the solution,” argues Toderian. “But a better energy source for the same number of cars, or even more and bigger cars, won’t get us where we need to be, and can induce more driving and higher emissions because we think those cars are ‘green.’”
“Smart cities,” he continued, “are transforming space previously surrendered to cars into new places for people, and re-introducing nature and green space into everyday urban life—to make cities more liveable and sustainable simultaneously.
“We’re constantly told that all of this is too hard or too expensive. But it’s only as hard as we choose to make it, and it’s a lot cheaper than the huge cost of continuing to make the wrong choices.
“We 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’s what this exhibition is all about: all of us—citizens of all ages and leaders alike—inspiring and challenging each other to go much further and faster with real urban climate action.”