Cities pivotal to overcoming challenges of global change: Saudi U20 summit leader

Hosam Al-Qurashi (L), vice chair of the U20, who spoke to Arab News about the role cities will play in overcoming challenges of global change. Riyadh and Dubai skylines. (Supplied/Reuters/File Photo)

• Cities now consume more than two-thirds of the world’s energy
• Since 1950, the urban population of the world has grown from 75.1 million to 4.2 billion

RIYADH: The world’s urban centers are, more than ever, pivotal to fostering global change, the vice chair of a G20-linked Saudi summit has claimed.

Cities now consume more than two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for at least 70 percent of global C02 emissions.

Since 1950, the urban population of the world has grown from 75.1 million to 4.2 billion. With 90 percent of urban areas situated on coastlines, cities are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels and storms.

Hosam Al-Qurashi, vice chair of the U20, told Arab News: “The U20 (the urban track of the G20 organization that has been meeting in Riyadh) is about voicing the issues that cities and their inhabitants around the world are experiencing.

“We want to make sure that these voices reach the leaders of the G20 so that they implement solutions and initiatives that guarantee the resilience and sustainability of these cities for the long term.”

Al-Qurashi noted the U20 pillars of collaboration, consensus, evidence and scientific-based outcomes.

He said the grouping was composed of more than 40 cities and 30 knowledge partners that were collaborating to find solutions to some of the challenges facing urban centers around the world.

The U20 Mayors Summit has been taking place under the shadow of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with all its associated socio-economic uncertainties.

“COVID-19 gave us an X-ray and showed us that we are not as strong and resilient a species as we thought. Accordingly, there is now a global direction to re-invest in science, wellbeing, and healthy living,” Al-Qurashi added.

In the midst of the pandemic the U20 formed a special working group on COVID-19 — a sub-product of the U20 that was chaired by Rome and Buenos Aires.

The group has shared 32 case studies and best practices for dealing with the health crisis and also commissioned a survey to gather data from cities together representing more than 75 million residents.

The accumulated policy recommendations of all the special working groups will be combined in a communique for delivery to the G20 leadership.

Al-Qurashi said: “The process is so multilateral and so fair, and every city had equal say and contribution in the development of this communique. It has been built on consensus and full collaboration of all of the participating cities.”

He pointed out the speed at which the U20 had reacted in the middle of the pandemic.

“We could not meet. The working team had to quickly adjust to the needs of this common threat that humanity is currently facing. The group was created in order to develop policy recommendations on how to recover from the pandemic and how to prepare for future shocks,” he added.

Cities and their transportation networks were coming under increasing pressure as growing numbers of people moved to urban areas, he said.

“In the future a public transportation network is definitely going to adopt standard operating procedures to deal with pandemics so that people will automatically react to future pandemics and calamities by being more resilient, capable, and ready to face these shocking events that we were not prepared for in the past.

“I believe that Saudi’s presidency over the G20 has raised the bar quite high in the way we handled it and managed these sessions and the way we involved people that was so collaborative and so inclusive and open.

“Importantly, COVID-19 did not impact the deliverables of the summit. We are proud of the legacy that we are leaving behind and for the other cities to build on,” Al-Qurashi added.

The aim of the U20 was to build resilience for the present and future of the world through cities, he noted.

“Innovation is at the heart of these special working groups: Innovating new solutions, themes, new forms of economy, of improving the climate and safeguarding the planet.

“This was about innovating urban solutions to address the challenges of cities across the world. That was what the U20 was all about.”