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The Urban Report: From FORESIGHT Climate & Energy, The Urban Report is a podcast that takes a close look at how cities around
The Urban Report: From FORESIGHT Climate & Energy, The Urban Report is a podcast that takes a close look at how cities around
The Urban Report is a podcast from FORESIGHT Climate & Energy that examines how cities around the world are working toward net-zero. FORESIGHT editors hold in-depth conversations with leading thinkers and practitioners involved in sustainable urban development. Episodes explore topics such as greener local mobility, building energy efficiency, and the broader climate transition from a city perspective. The show offers a considered look at the people and ideas shaping more sustainable built environments.
Episoder
What happens when cities run out of space?
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. “Space is becoming a sparse resource in cities around the world, and to some extent, also in Copenhagen. And this obviously challenges us in the way that we develop the city.”Welcome to The Urban Question, a special series of the Urban Report podcast from FORESIGHT Climate &am
Can cities grow without harming the planet?
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. "We have to combine a low-emission building with high-absorption city nature."Welcome to The Urban Question, a special series of the Urban Report podcast from FORESIGHT Climate & Energy in association with Bloxhub, the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanisation and the WRLDCT
What makes for a human-centric city?
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. "Human design is and always must be starting from the lived experience of its users."Welcome to The Urban Question, a special series of the Urban Report podcast from FORESIGHT Climate & Energy in association with Bloxhub, the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanisation and the
Maintaining the focus on climate in a turbulent era
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. During European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s first term from 2019 to 2024, climate change was arguably at the top of the political agenda. The European Commission tabled a huge package of laws aimed at slashing emissions across the bloc, framing the new “Green D
The path to zero-carbon buildings
When it comes to reducing building emissions, knowing where to start is not always easy—buildings vary in size and shape, serve diverse purposes, and construction methods differ, sometimes quite drastically, by geographic location.Given this diversity, what are the steps that we can take to reduce the carbon output of the built environment? The Energy Transitions Commission, a coalition of st
US cities are in decline. This Nordic model can help.
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Post World War II, American cities were the envy of the world. With booming industries, towering skyscrapers, and highways full of cars, US cities symbolised the country’s soaring quality of life. Today, however, the position of American cities has faded—many US urban centres
Existing buildings hold the key to Europe’s housing crisis
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. “There are many factors which contribute to the housing crisis. Maybe it is a lack of supply, a lack of new buildings. But in fact, I think it is also a lack of smartness—smartness in how we really use our existing housing stock," Oliver Rapf, the Executive Director of the Bui
An energy efficiency model that pays for itself
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. The energy used to heat, cool and power buildings is responsible for 28% of energy-related carbon emissions globally. Reducing the energy consumed in buildings, therefore, is an effective way to mitigate the climate impact of the building stock.Installing power-efficient light
‘Green’ and ‘affordable’ housing go hand-in-hand
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Across Europe, the housing crisis is being felt deeply. Young people in particular are frequently unable to buy or rent a home close to their job or social ties, oftentimes leaving them stranded in their family home. For the first time, the EU has taken on the challenge o
Vitoria-Gasteiz prepares for a future of extreme weather
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. In Spain, the effects of climate change are shockingly apparent: cities across the Mediterranean country have seen property destroyed, lives lost, and urban areas devastated as a result of extreme weather and wildfires. For local governments, the need to make their cities
EV drivers could earn thousands per year
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. When it comes to why people opt for a petrol or diesel car over an electric vehicle (EV), one of the most common reasons is that the cost of an electric vehicle is still too high. However, new charging technology is set to bring down the total cost of EV ownership, making the switch
City leaders push back against Trump’s climate destruction
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. The Trump administration has rapidly undone much of the country’s climate mitigation progress. In contrast, many local and regional leaders are determined to do more. Commissioner Brigid Shea of Travis County, Texas, joins the Urban Report to discuss how cities are responding to the
Designing the future of urban mobility
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While science fiction’s predictions of flying vehicles may not have materialised yet, innovations in the field of transport have changed how we get from A to B.The range of mobility modes on offer in our cities today would seem futuristic to people from a few decades ago, such as dr
Can housing affordability and sustainability coexist?
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Across Europe, the number of young adults living with their parents until an older age is rising, thanks largely to soaring housing prices. Between 2015 and 2023, the cost of renting or owning a home in the EU increased by 48%. For the first time, the European Union is st
Building renovations are expensive. Not renovating will cost more.
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Buildings are responsible for around a third of the European Union’s energy-related emissions, making them a prime target for green measures. To reduce the built environment’s carbon footprint, recently agreed EU legislation requires a portion of the bloc’s buildings to be made more
Urban climate action: a reality check
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has found that the world is not on track to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. It warns there is a “rapidly narrowing window to raise ambition and implement existing commitments”.In 2024, the Financial Times reported
Barcelona keeps its cool amid over-tourism
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Every year, millions of people from around the globe flock to the Spanish city of Barcelona to experience its sunny weather, world-famous architecture and delicious cuisine. By some estimates, the city receives around 32 million visitors annually, making it one of the most visited c
Bristol leaps into a carbon-neutral future
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While climate measures that cover a nation must be applicable in settings that are urban and rural, rich and poor, and of diverse geographies, city-level measures can be far more tailored to local challenges, allowing progress to be made more quickly.Bristol in the southwest of Engl
What Japan and Denmark can teach each other about the building sector
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While reducing emissions is a global goal, the means of doing so inevitably varies by region. Climate mitigation measures must adapt to diverse contexts, making one-size-fits-all solutions difficult to apply. The built environment provides a particularly salient example of how
Putting a price on carbon in the real estate market
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Carbon markets, where polluters pay for their carbon emissions, are being increasingly used by regulators to spur industry and rein in greenhouse gas emissions. In the European Union, plans are afoot to extend the bloc’s carbon trading system to road transport and buildings, with th
Lessons from Germany’s greenest city
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Freiburg is widely considered Germany’s environmental capital, earning the moniker “Green City” thanks to its sustainability principles. Mayor Martin Horn joins the Urban Report to discuss the city’s environmental ambitions and how Europe can avoid succumbing to “destructive frustra
A new approach to funding climate action in cities
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While much of climate legislation is agreed upon in national capitals or by international bodies like the EU, most of these laws are implemented in cities. This means that local and regional governments need the right staff, with the right expertise, to ensure measures ar
Dublin is taking the city back from cars
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. A new transport plan in the Irish capital aims to cut car traffic by 40%. The move is part of a broader effort to make city living more pleasant by reallocating space to walking, cycling and public transport. Felijn Jose, a Green Party councillor in Dublin, joins The Urban Report to
Tackling energy poverty
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Households across Europe are unable to pay their energy bills, leaving occupants afraid to cook warm meals or turn on the heating in cold weather. Louise Sunderland of the Regulatory Assistance Project joins The Urban Report to discuss the measures in place to tackle energy povertyM
Can AI make our buildings greener?
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. It’s predicted that artificial intelligence and machine learning will fundamentally alter our societies in the coming decades. Rahul Chillar from Siemens Smart Infrastructure joins The Urban Report to discuss how these digital technologies can be used to cut energy usage and reduce
Energy efficient buildings: from theory to practice
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Currently, around 40% of energy consumed in the EU is used in buildings, producing over a third of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. The recently updated European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) aims to improve these figures by making buildings less energy-inte
The building health check
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While buildings aren’t particularly associated with personal health, homes and offices can have a significant impact on our well-being. Living in a damp building prone to mould, a home with poor indoor air quality, or spending sustained periods in an uncomfortably hot off
Are climate action costs shared fairly?
Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Across Europe, Green political parties are struggling to make electoral inroads, partially due to the perception that climate measures are financially burdensome for average people.The notion that the environmental movement is championed by the well-off, those unbothered by electric
Giving cities a seat at the climate table
While much of the climate transition discussion is around legislation from national capitals and supranational bodies, the bulk of these laws will be enacted at the local level. It is estimated that more than 70% of the EU’s Green Deal legislation will be implemented in cities. City advocates have argued for years that the actions of local governments will determine if we meet our climate goa
