city project in Abu Dhabi; or Tianjin Eco-city, near Beijing).29 drastically reduced the commute time of the city’s poorest Designed by well-known international design firms, planned people (see Box 1.2). It demonstrates the value of design cities sometimes combine a number of famous urban in achieving an outcome. Embracing inclusiveness should models (in the case of Songdo, Savannah’s neighborhood encourage urban planners to promote solutions that benefit parks, Venice’s quaint canals, and New York’s Central Park). all city users. Being visionary requires good urban planning For many observers, the result ultimately appears trivial. that addresses immediate needs at the same time as it These contemporary planned smart cities provide reliable strives to achieve a unique vision of the future for the city. public services, but the built environments they create are • A city’s prioritizing the acquisition of modern technologies almost universally stuffy and generic. Planned cities often may displease its inhabitants owing to those technologies’ find it difficult to adapt to changing circumstances (for high maintenance costs and their diminishing of places example, sudden influxes of people, an aging population, or where social relationships are built (for example, schools, the modernization of infrastructure). Due to their design, shops, and transport facilities that connect people to their they do not offer the variety or flexibility that historic towns workplaces). Moreover, so-called digitally illiterate people can have. A planned city lacks an authentic urban identity may use digital services incorrectly or ineffectively, causing because it often takes decades to build. Finally, these harm to themselves as well as systemic difficulties for the greenfield cities exacerbate spatial segregation and lead to services. a fragmented demography. Sustainable city innovation is not • Finally, in the case of some cities, changes arising from the just a matter of technologies and architecture; it is about introduction of the smart and sustainable city concept create creating the best living and working conditions. Developing a need to factor in the existing character and unique charm a sustainable city demands vision and sound urban planning. of the city in question, especially when those things or the Because geographical place matters, design matters. The city’s long history are among its key assets. famous Metrocable system of Medellín’s Comuna 13 has Empowering cities: why are cities under scrutiny and under pressure to take action? A- National governments vs. cities From a historical perspective, 2009 can be seen as a turning The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference concluded with point for cities. In that year, mayors of some of the world’s main nothing more than a political statement. Participants affirmed cities seemed to realize that, when it came to tackling climate the need to limit the global average temperature increase change locally, their policies needed to go beyond those set by to no more than two degrees centigrade above preindustrial national governments. Copenhagen was the place where this levels (circa 1750).31 Even this political statement itself was turning point came about. In December of that year, two important seen as a failure by many, because it contained no agreement conferences took place in the city. The first was the Copenhagen on how to achieve that aim in practical terms. In particular, Climate Change Conference, which national heads of state and national authorities failed to agree on limiting greenhouse government from across the world attended. That conference gas emissions and set aside the question of forming a global overlapped with Copenhagen’s hosting of the Copenhagen Climate environmental agency. Summit for Mayors.30 Following a couple of testimonies from experts in climate change and global warming, a good number Starting in 2010, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) of mayors realized that they could not just wait for national-level started to be more proactive, organizing the First World Summit initiatives to tackle pollution, greenhouse gas, and population of Local and Regional Leaders, which was held in Mexico City. growth in their own cities. The Copenhagen Climate Summit for Delegates from each continent discussed the critical issues Mayors put cities at the top of the global climate agenda and sent that they faced. Participants agreed on a set of initiatives, a message to heads of state, the media, and citizens. priorities, and actions. The UCLG also published the Manifesto (28) The intention is to build an experimental city, dubbed by some as a “city in a box” because of its reliance on technology. Most such places characterize themselves as the city of the future; all that is missing are the residents. Can they be a success? (29) See footnote 11 above. (30) Miller, David (2020). Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis. Foreword by Bill McKibben. AEVO/University of Toronto Press. (31) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses the year 1750 as a baseline year for the end of the preindustrial era, as do various sources. “Five gases account for about 96% of the direct radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases since 1750.” Butler, James H. (Summer 2012).The NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index. US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/aggi/aggi.html (accessed on 12 March 2021). 37 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021