Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. I'm sure you know by now that I
Speaker 1: live in London because I kind of say it all
Speaker 1: the time. But I grew up in the US, in Virginia,
Speaker 1: just outside Washington, d C. Growing up, I thought d
Speaker 1: C was huge, mostly because I was small and it
Speaker 1: was the only city I knew. And then I went
Speaker 1: to New York and high school, and I thought, Okay, wow,
Speaker 1: all right, now here is a big city. But then
Speaker 1: later those perceptions were shattered when I visited Istanbul and Tokyo.
Speaker 1: I mean, those are big cities. Some cities just seem
Speaker 1: like they go on forever. But the first thing I
Speaker 1: learned from the report we're going to talk about today
Speaker 1: is that while they can't seem endless, cities only cover
Speaker 1: three percent of global land mass but account for seventy
Speaker 1: percent of global emissions. Because of that, cities around the
Speaker 1: world are turning their focus to sustainability. Focus to sustainability,
Speaker 1: improving air quality and using their resources more efficiently, using
Speaker 1: electricity more efficiently, making their cities cleaner and more livable,
Speaker 1: and making them more resilient to the effects of climate change. Today,
Speaker 1: on the show, We're welcoming back krty Vasta, Technology and
Speaker 1: innovation analysts for b NF. She'll tell us about how
Speaker 1: cities are pushing towards the state ability, why now, and
Speaker 1: how different cities are approaching the challenge in different ways,
Speaker 1: and how all cities are using technology as a key
Speaker 1: component to their strategy. Our discussion is based on a
Speaker 1: report titled Digital Technologies for Smarter, more Sustainable Cities Being
Speaker 1: If you just can get this report on BNF go
Speaker 1: and the Bloomberg terminal, BENF dot com and the BNF
Speaker 1: mobile app. As a reminder, BETF does not provide investment
Speaker 1: or strategy device and you can hear the fullest claimer
Speaker 1: at the end of the show. Mark Taylor and you're
Speaker 1: listening to Switched on to BENF podcast cut Welcome, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. So let's start off as we always
Speaker 1: do on the pod, just really basic. So we're going
Speaker 1: to talk today about, you know, cities being more sustainable.
Speaker 1: Why are cities focusing on sustainability now? I think cities
Speaker 1: are actually facing a number of really complex challenges right now,
Speaker 1: not just around sustainability. You know, to think more than
Speaker 1: half of the world's population actually lives in cities, and
Speaker 1: this is only projected to expand over the next decade,
Speaker 1: which is then creating huge challenges around resource constraints, public
Speaker 1: health and safety issues such as you know, traffic congestion,
Speaker 1: increasing air pollution. And then at the same time we're
Speaker 1: also seeing the effects of climate change and extreme weather
Speaker 1: events like the floods that we recently saw in Germany,
Speaker 1: and this is really putting a lot of people and
Speaker 1: infrastructure at risk. So CITI has already had a lot
Speaker 1: of this to think about. And then of course along
Speaker 1: came this global pandemic which just exposed cities vulnerabilities to
Speaker 1: health related emergencies, and city authorities have really been at
Speaker 1: the forefront of tackling the pandemic and you know, enforcing
Speaker 1: socially distanced walkways and managing public spaces, and in some ways,
Speaker 1: I really think it's the pandemic that has actually marked
Speaker 1: this historical moment for cities to really start to reimagine
Speaker 1: urban life now with things like sustainability, you know, improved
Speaker 1: air quality, improved resource efficiency, and of course resiliency at
Speaker 1: the heart of of what they're focusing on. I remember
Speaker 1: last year in London it was just you know, clear
Speaker 1: as day, it was, it was just clear, you know,
Speaker 1: during the height of the pandemic is terribly unfortunate, of course,
Speaker 1: but it was noticeable. Yeah, No, air quality has actually
Speaker 1: been really one of the biggest benefits that we've seen
Speaker 1: an improvement in and I think because it's you know,
Speaker 1: so stark, we can see it, it's right in front
Speaker 1: of us. It's it's really driving this movement towards people
Speaker 1: starting to reimagine what city life could be like with
Speaker 1: things like sustainable practices in place. Air quality is one
Speaker 1: of the big changes that we've seen that people want
Speaker 1: to hold onto in this you know, future of cities
Speaker 1: with a sustainable focus. And I don't know, it's maybe
Speaker 1: it's just this week, or maybe this is a you know,
Speaker 1: a sign of things to come. I don't know, but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that the floods in Germany but also China,
Speaker 1: and the air quality in New York City from the fires,
Speaker 1: and there was this massive storm in London last week,
Speaker 1: and the heat in Portland, like it all just seems
Speaker 1: to be kind of adding up right now to make
Speaker 1: it a really rough time to live in a lot
Speaker 1: of cities. So kind of to review you you just
Speaker 1: mentioned some of the things that are that are happening
Speaker 1: are public health concerns, pollution, climate change, and I guess
Speaker 1: energy security or security of of living in a city
Speaker 1: in general. Our cities taking these challenges on like I know,
Speaker 1: you know, you're not going to act based on just
Speaker 1: what you heard what happened last week, but our cities
Speaker 1: developing sustainability goals. Yeah, absolutely So. Actually has been a
Speaker 1: record year where we've seen over nine hundred cities and
Speaker 1: regions setting net zero emissions targets, and altogether this represents
Speaker 1: about eleven percent of the global population. So if these
Speaker 1: goals are fulfilled, it's likely to really make a significant
Speaker 1: dent in the global cobbon footprint. In the report, you said,
Speaker 1: I think it was seventy percent of emissions come from cities,
Speaker 1: Is that right, Yeah, and it's just three percent of
Speaker 1: the landmass that that that figure was just amazing to me.
Speaker 1: It is, it's really it's really surprising. And also, you know,
Speaker 1: cities consume about eight of the world's energy as well,
Speaker 1: so governments are now really recognizing that in order to
Speaker 1: hit these national level climate commitments that they're making, cities
Speaker 1: are going to play a really huge part. And you
Speaker 1: know what I find really exciting about cities net zero
Speaker 1: goals and sustainability policies is that they've also started to
Speaker 1: align with digitalization policies. What I mean by that is
Speaker 1: that governments are recognizing that the real power of digital
Speaker 1: technologies to advance sustainability outcomes, especially when they're applied in
Speaker 1: areas like technologies to monitor emissions or in transport, you know,
Speaker 1: smart mobility. Basically national and city level sustainability policies and
Speaker 1: now directing funding to digitalized infrastructure adopt IoT sensors use
Speaker 1: analytic software to really better understand and then optimize operations.
Speaker 1: That's really cool, and so we'll dig into how these
Speaker 1: digital technologies are being used to further these sustainability goals
Speaker 1: in a bit, but first, can you tell us a
Speaker 1: bit more about the sustainability goals themselves. In the report
Speaker 1: you mentioned four main areas where cities tend to focus.
Speaker 1: We've identified these four broad areas where we're seeing cities
Speaker 1: actually set sustainability goals, and that's air quality, resource efficiency,
Speaker 1: energy efficiency and use, and then the fourth area is resiliency. Now,
Speaker 1: just to kind of explain a little bit about each
Speaker 1: of these, about four point two million deaths are caused
Speaker 1: by air pollution each year. And a lot of cities
Speaker 1: are trying to tackle it. You know, they're investing investing
Speaker 1: in better monitoring air quality monitoring technologies and satellites. But
Speaker 1: what's really interesting to see now is that cities also
Speaker 1: leveraging technologies to encourage walking and cycling through things like
Speaker 1: journey planning apps or using AI to have demand responsive transport,
Speaker 1: which is then reducing the number of vehicles on streets,
Speaker 1: which then reduces traffic congestion improves air quality in return.
Speaker 1: So there's a number of ways which data and technologies
Speaker 1: are really driving an improvement in air quality for cities.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. So on air quality for for work,
Speaker 1: I actually go to used to go to Jakarta every
Speaker 1: year to talk to people in the geothermal industry, and
Speaker 1: one thing you'll notice about Jakarta is just there's just
Speaker 1: tremendous traffic and bad air quality from if I'm honest. So,
Speaker 1: what are some kind of examples of things that are
Speaker 1: being done in cities, maybe like Jakarta to reduce air pollution.
Speaker 1: So I think Shanghai is a really good example. What
Speaker 1: they've recently done is Ali Baba launched an AI based
Speaker 1: app called the City Brain to really try and improve
Speaker 1: traffic congestion and improve their quality as a result. And
Speaker 1: this is kind of like a service that works a
Speaker 1: bit like a ride sharing app, where commuters buy a
Speaker 1: bus ticket via this app and enter their start and
Speaker 1: end locations, and the app then calculates the number of
Speaker 1: buses required on the streets and it optimizes the journey
Speaker 1: as a result as well. And I think this has
Speaker 1: been really effective in kind of reducing the journey times
Speaker 1: and also just improving commuter fatigue and just generally improving
Speaker 1: air quality in cities which are really congested and have
Speaker 1: this have this problem widespread. Okay, so we're gonna take
Speaker 1: a quick break. Stay with us. So resource efficiency, what
Speaker 1: can you tell me about that? Resource efficiency is actually
Speaker 1: another another big area where city leaders are really thinking
Speaker 1: about ways that they can optimize, you know, managing water
Speaker 1: and reducing waste, implementing recycling and circular economy practices, and
Speaker 1: also just thinking about methods that can be implemented to
Speaker 1: introduce sustainable construction, which I think is a really interesting
Speaker 1: area and there's a lot of interesting ways that technologies
Speaker 1: can be applied to kind of improved the types of
Speaker 1: materials that are being used in new building construction to
Speaker 1: account for sustainability. One of my favorite examples is the
Speaker 1: city of Amsterdam, which is using what's called a material passport,
Speaker 1: which is actually really interesting. It's quite a new sort
Speaker 1: of technology that's being piloted in a bunch of cities.
Speaker 1: But it's basically working on creating a catalog of all
Speaker 1: the components used in every public building to develop a
Speaker 1: database of the materials, and then that database can then
Speaker 1: help future building constructors. We use those materials in the future.
Speaker 1: So you're saying, if somebody uses certain types of I
Speaker 1: don't know, rebar or nuts or bolts or whatever, and
Speaker 1: somebody and they're going to tear down that building and
Speaker 1: somebody else needs those later, they can reuse those materials exactly.
Speaker 1: So wrap this protupt So what does it mean to
Speaker 1: be resilient for a city? So we have all these
Speaker 1: things for about sustainability, but resilience seems to be a
Speaker 1: bit at arts and just preparing for the worst. Is it?
Speaker 1: Resilience is actually the most central part of a city strategy,
Speaker 1: and it really goes hand in hand with sustainability. Given
Speaker 1: that you know, what we're talking about when it comes
Speaker 1: to resiliency is having systems and approaches and the flexibility
Speaker 1: within a city to deal with unpredictable events and really
Speaker 1: recover quickly when things go wrong. And I think what's
Speaker 1: interesting now is what everybody is talking about digital resilience,
Speaker 1: which is using data and analytics and software not just
Speaker 1: to respond quickly and effectively to shocks, but also to
Speaker 1: reduce the likelihood of emergencies happening in the first place.
Speaker 1: And I think a really interesting example is the city
Speaker 1: of l A is using a AI based disaster assessment
Speaker 1: platform which basically pulls in a lot of data on
Speaker 1: city infrastructure and previous disasters that have happened to then
Speaker 1: try and predict the likelihood of a future disaster events
Speaker 1: carring in the city. And the platform claims to estimate
Speaker 1: events within accuracy within fifteen minutes of the data coming through,
Speaker 1: And so this can have a huge impact on disaster
Speaker 1: events and have a life saving impact. That's really amazing.
Speaker 1: But it makes me think like, Okay, but that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of good for l A because you know, it's
Speaker 1: a wealthier city as opposed to many of the other
Speaker 1: cities around the world that can afford to do types
Speaker 1: of things like this. From the note you said, there
Speaker 1: is kind of a relationship between a city's characteristics and
Speaker 1: it's frankly wealth and the types of things that it
Speaker 1: can do. So let's dig into the technology a bit
Speaker 1: and the options available to cities based on kind of
Speaker 1: what they are. As as you mentioned, you know, the
Speaker 1: wealth of a city is really important when it comes
Speaker 1: to understanding the types of technologies that cities are adopting.
Speaker 1: Deployment is largely dependent on data availability as well, and
Speaker 1: I can't really stress the importance of this. It all
Speaker 1: starts with having you know, this base level of data
Speaker 1: and information to really begin to understand where the weaknesses
Speaker 1: lie in city infrastructure, and that in turn can then
Speaker 1: help cities build the technology systems they need to to
Speaker 1: kind of target their week week soft spots. So you're
Speaker 1: saying tech is really kind of a first step in
Speaker 1: a way to deploy sensors and things like that, so
Speaker 1: you can collect the information so then you can deploy
Speaker 1: the solutions later. Is that right? Yeah? So just you
Speaker 1: know that, I'd say the primary, you know, the first
Speaker 1: step would really be to just understand your systems, collect
Speaker 1: data and and and actually integrate that data. So one
Speaker 1: one thing that I think has been really successful for
Speaker 1: a lot of cities is using open data sharing platforms.
Speaker 1: London is a great example. There's the London Data Store,
Speaker 1: which is a free and open data sharing portal and
Speaker 1: it's used by both public and private entities to better
Speaker 1: understand the city generally and come up with solutions to
Speaker 1: many of its problems as well. And I think this
Speaker 1: sort of platform is is great because it allows data
Speaker 1: to be integrated and I mentioned but it also means
Speaker 1: that the right information can be found in haste during
Speaker 1: an emergency because it's all integrated, it's in one place
Speaker 1: that's centralized. So yes, the first step would be having
Speaker 1: the right information and the data available. What we go
Speaker 1: through in the note is looking at three types of
Speaker 1: city groupings. So we look at high income dense, high
Speaker 1: income sprawling, and low income dense and it's quite interesting
Speaker 1: to see the differences between them because they are quite stark.
Speaker 1: So if we look at high income densities, for example,
Speaker 1: you know they often do have a lot of better
Speaker 1: connectivity and data. City infrastructure tends to be well connected, however,
Speaker 1: it can be aging and quite inefficient. Older cities also
Speaker 1: tend to have more experience in managing shocks and stresses,
Speaker 1: but more recently they're becoming a lot more prone to
Speaker 1: things like cyber attacks because their city infrastructure is interconnected,
Speaker 1: and so actually, in high income dens cities, we're seeing
Speaker 1: that resiliency is really the top priority. With their being
Speaker 1: wealthier cities, they often have bigger budgets to allocate towards
Speaker 1: digitalization as well. So this is going to be like
Speaker 1: New York, right, Yeah, cities like New York, like London,
Speaker 1: we're already seeing technologies like AI digital twins starting to
Speaker 1: be experimented with and implemented in some places. And then
Speaker 1: if we think about high income sprawling cities, this is
Speaker 1: more about I guess the priority here is really air quality.
Speaker 1: Given that people living in wealthy sprawling cities have a
Speaker 1: greater reliance on cars, they often travel large distances from
Speaker 1: the suburbs to the center, which then creates traffic jams,
Speaker 1: and so often these types of cities are thinking about
Speaker 1: ways that they can implement journey planning apps or AI
Speaker 1: for demand responsive transport. Also, as as sprawling cities are
Speaker 1: constantly growing, city to hevelopers may also find more opportunities
Speaker 1: to pilots and deploy technologies like pipe leak detection in
Speaker 1: urban areas for example. And then if we think about
Speaker 1: the less wealthy cities tend to target the technologies that
Speaker 1: have low data requirements as they often you know, already
Speaker 1: lack the connectivity and data infrastructure with the type budgets
Speaker 1: that they already have for digital projects. Often it's you know,
Speaker 1: low income cities that depend on private companies as well
Speaker 1: to invest in the digital infrastructure, and that then helps
Speaker 1: them actually really understand the pain points in their systems.
Speaker 1: That's interesting points. So how does the private company benefit
Speaker 1: from installing digital infrastructure for a city. Do they get
Speaker 1: a city contract or are they trying to get the data? Actually,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's known to to be quite a complicated
Speaker 1: system for you know, particularly small companies gaining these large
Speaker 1: contracts with city governments. With private companies in lowing cities,
Speaker 1: they often need the infrastructure themselves as part of you know,
Speaker 1: their own operations, and so by having better internet connectivity
Speaker 1: within regions where maybe it's it's not as dense, often
Speaker 1: it's you know, an advantage to the private companies as
Speaker 1: well to have access to say, better connectivity, better digital
Speaker 1: infrastructure outside of the city or wherever they're based. That
Speaker 1: then feeds into the city government as well, which is
Speaker 1: then used by the broader city as well. And so
Speaker 1: it's it's actually a benefit, it's a benefit overall benefits
Speaker 1: both sides. Yeah, Okay. Taking us back to the example
Speaker 1: of Jakarta again, it kind of remind kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me of I don't know if this is the case,
Speaker 1: but it would seem to be the case for like
Speaker 1: a company like go Jack, which is like like Uber
Speaker 1: in Jakarta, that they would want to install or have
Speaker 1: information about traffic patterns in Jakarta so that they can
Speaker 1: better provide their users with trip planning or trip timings
Speaker 1: for the different journeys. Is that kind of what getting out?
Speaker 1: So benefits the city from having the information, but it
Speaker 1: also benefits go Jack to be able to tell their
Speaker 1: customers how long their trip is going to take. Absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's and it's this case of like collecting information
Speaker 1: and data and having that information feed into different other
Speaker 1: areas of the city as well. So that's exactly that's
Speaker 1: exactly that. Okay. So looking at these different types of cities,
Speaker 1: the three different categories that that that you mentioned, is
Speaker 1: there kind of a trend in who is setting up
Speaker 1: sustainability goals. I mean, you mentioned that the focuses are different,
Speaker 1: So on wealthy cities you'll have more on resilience, lower
Speaker 1: income cities you'll have more on installing digital infrastructure to
Speaker 1: get data. But is there a trend on who's setting
Speaker 1: sustainability goals generally? Is it all the wealthy cities or
Speaker 1: and you know, few of the lower income cities, or
Speaker 1: vice versa, or is everybody doing it? I think it's
Speaker 1: it's been There's been a range of announcements. I think
Speaker 1: much of it is coming from the wealthier countries, but
Speaker 1: actually much of it is coming from NASH and level
Speaker 1: policies as well. So you know, a lot of these
Speaker 1: green recovery packages that we've been seeing being launched last
Speaker 1: year and this year are really driving funding into smart
Speaker 1: cities and and often it is it is the wealthier
Speaker 1: cities now, but of course they're implementing these technologies and
Speaker 1: in some ways they're like pilot projects or experimentations which
Speaker 1: would then be rolled out into the different cities, you know,
Speaker 1: across across the country. And and you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's important to say, you know, within a country you
Speaker 1: get the whole range of types of cities, not all
Speaker 1: of them within a wealthy country would be wealthy cities. Right,
Speaker 1: that's also, you know, something to kind of take into account. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been interesting to see how national level policy has
Speaker 1: been feeding into city level policy as well. And I
Speaker 1: think if we take the example of the e use
Speaker 1: Green Deal within that, it actually emphasizes that cities really
Speaker 1: need to leverage technologies like AI just to reach climate neutrality.
Speaker 1: And they've they've dedicated about forty three billion just to
Speaker 1: low carbon technology specifically, and I think I think that's
Speaker 1: really a big sign just to say this is where
Speaker 1: we need to focus. Okay, so it has a kind
Speaker 1: of a chain for a country to reach a net
Speaker 1: zero target, you have to tackle the cities right. You
Speaker 1: have to get the cities right, and to do that
Speaker 1: you need tech. It seems to be a huge part
Speaker 1: of the whole picture. So talking about national level policy,
Speaker 1: our team actually publishes a annual country Digitalization ranking where
Speaker 1: we review the level of digitalization across a range of
Speaker 1: countries and rank them. And I think as part of
Speaker 1: that research, what we've what we've seen is there's been
Speaker 1: this overlap between digitalization policy and sustainability policy as well.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, again that feeds directly into
Speaker 1: what this note is about as well, where we're seeing
Speaker 1: the same thing happening within cities. Yeah, definitely, Well when
Speaker 1: is that out next? So we'll be publishing that in
Speaker 1: the second half of this year, around end of Key three.
Speaker 1: I'd say, okay, So I've got kind of two questions.
Speaker 1: One is, you know, from doing all this research, what
Speaker 1: do you see as the most there's the single most
Speaker 1: impactful thing a city can do to be sustainable or decarbonized.
Speaker 1: I got excited about seeing traffic control options in Jakarta,
Speaker 1: for example. We talked about that, but like, what do
Speaker 1: you think? So I can't stress the importance of data
Speaker 1: availability and open data platforms are really a key part
Speaker 1: of that. You know, having information available at city leaders
Speaker 1: fingertips to really act and and you know, make decisions
Speaker 1: quickly has been a crucial part of what we've seen
Speaker 1: during the pandemic with you know, enforcing lockdowns and understanding
Speaker 1: and how to manage the spread of the virus. But
Speaker 1: it's also a bigger part of how cities should be
Speaker 1: running on it on a day to day and I
Speaker 1: think it's particularly important for sustainability as well. And finally,
Speaker 1: so what's next for cities? You know, as I've mentioned
Speaker 1: thousand times on this show, I I live in London
Speaker 1: and so I've looked for these city projects quite a bit.
Speaker 1: You know that they just installed the bike lane down
Speaker 1: at the end of end of my street. When will
Speaker 1: I start to see things happening in this guard in
Speaker 1: in my city or in other cities. I think there's
Speaker 1: the pandemic has really you know, marked this historic moment
Speaker 1: to kind of push towards reimagining city. So I think
Speaker 1: we're definitely going to reach a point where slowly we
Speaker 1: will start to see changes, you know, maybe broader cycle
Speaker 1: lanes as you mentioned, or you know, increased incentives to
Speaker 1: actually cycle around the city or walk. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the use of technology is is going to
Speaker 1: be gradual. Even though you know there's it's happening now,
Speaker 1: it's it's still going to be gradual. And I think
Speaker 1: as soon as we get the use of AI across
Speaker 1: public sector operations, I think that's really going to be
Speaker 1: transformed transformative, particularly in the public sector operations, so like
Speaker 1: creating efficiencies and cutting costs for general administrative tasks. I
Speaker 1: think this will then eventually free up city budgets to
Speaker 1: direct investments into digitalizing infrastructure as well. And I think
Speaker 1: that's when it's become going to become really visible and
Speaker 1: impactful in our day today lives. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us, Thank you for having me. Today's episode of
Speaker 1: Switched On was edited by Rex Warner of gray Stoke Media.
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