01.07.2005 21.05.2015
Application Phase
Selection phase
Funding phase

Future Megacities – Energy- and Climate-Efficient Structures in Urban Growth Centres

Urban growth centres play a key role in the fields of global climate protection (mitigation) and adapting to climate changes which are no longer avoidable (adaptation). What technical- and non-technical innovations promote their sustainable development?

Urban growth centres play a key role in the fields of global climate protection (mitigation) and adapting to climate changes which are no longer avoidable (adaptation). Although cities only take up 2% of the earth’s land surface, they are responsible for three quarter of global energy consumption as well as 70 to 85% of the global production of greenhouse gases. Cities not only drive climate change, they also receive the full brunt of its consequences. A fifth of the world’s population lives less than 30 kilometres from the coast in areas with a high population density. Floods, storm tides, strong winds, heavy rain as well as heat waves and droughts will occur more frequently in the future, endangering human life, residential areas, infrastructures, ecological systems, economic life and public health and safety in cities. Politics, economics and institutions of civil-society will be faced here with new challenges. The strategic goal of “Future Megacities” as a focal funding area is to support urban growth centres in their strategic development path. Therefore, the projects are to create a broadly equipped “toolbox” with application-oriented and transferable solutions for dealing with the challenges of energy efficiency, the consumption of resources and climate change. Nine bilateral research teams from eight developing and newly industrialising countries as well as from Germany are forging new alliances with city administrations, companies, the financial sector and civil society. They encompass rapidly developing urban agglomerations in Ethiopia, China, India, Iran, Morocco, Peru, South Africa and Vietnam. The projects are dedicated to specific energy and climate-efficient structures in areas of life and economic sectors that determine the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of cities which are frequently in urgent need of strategies for prevention and adaptation. These areas include construction and housing, nutrition and urban agriculture, health and quality of life, town planning and governability, energy supply and consumption, mobility and transport, water supply, waste disposal and environmental management: http://future-megacities.org/index.php?id=133
Guangzhou City© Dr. Andrea Koch-Kraft, DLR-PT

Urban growth centres play a key role in the fields of global climate protection (mitigation) and adapting to climate changes which are no longer avoidable (adaptation). Although cities only take up 2% of the earth's land surface, they are responsible for three quarter of global energy consumption as well as 70 to 85% of the global production of greenhouse gases. Cities not only drive climate change, they also receive the full brunt of its consequences. A fifth of the world's population lives less than 30 kilometres from the coast in areas with a high population density. Floods, storm tides, strong winds, heavy rain as well as heat waves and droughts will occur more frequently in the future, endangering human life, residential areas, infrastructures, ecological systems, economic life and public health and safety in cities. Politics, economics and institutions of civil-society will be faced here with new challenges.

The strategic goal of "Future Megacities" as a focal funding area is to support urban growth centres in their strategic development path. Therefore, the projects are to create a broadly equipped "toolbox" with application-oriented and transferable solutions for dealing with the challenges of energy efficiency, the consumption of resources and climate change.

Nine bilateral research teams from eight developing and newly industrialising countries as well as from Germany are forging new alliances with city administrations, companies, the financial sector and civil society. They encompass rapidly developing urban agglomerations in Ethiopia, China, India, Iran, Morocco, Peru, South Africa and Vietnam. The projects are dedicated to specific energy and climate-efficient structures in areas of life and economic sectors that determine the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of cities which are frequently in urgent need of strategies for prevention and adaptation. These areas include construction and housing, nutrition and urban agriculture, health and quality of life, town planning and governability, energy supply and consumption, mobility and transport, water supply, waste disposal and environmental management:

 http://future-megacities.org/index.php?id=133

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