New Urban Insight Podcast: Building Back Better

A city the size of Paris must be built every week for the next 30 years to accommodate global population growth. How do we rebuild our cities and towns in the face of climate change?

In this episode, we dive deep into the topic of how to speed up the transition to resilient, climate-neutral cities. We speak with Matthew Baldwin at the European Commission, who is heading a mission to create 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030. We discuss challenges and solutions with urban development experts, researchers, and other specialists within the field.

Cities account for 70% of the world’s global emissions, and they are now being hit by the effects of climate change like flooding and other problems. So, how do we rebuild our cities to adapt them to the effects of climate change and to align them with the goals of the Paris climate agreement and UN sustainable development goals?

Episode guest appearances

• Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director General at the European Commission in the Mobility Department and Manager of the European Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart cities
• Andreas Gyllenhammar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Sweco
• Bas Horsting, Design Director, Urban Planning and Architecture, Sweco
• Matilda van den Bosch, Researcher, Barcelona Institute for Global Health
• Lot van Hooijdonk, Alderman, city of Utrecht
• Colm O’Callaghan, moderator, Brid Agency