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00:00This week because of these operations you can say it's natural condition from L.A. to Berlin to Singapore. Cities are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. What can they do to adapt to an uncertain future. Air pollution is really according to the W.H.. The world's greatest environmental health threat. And we are simply not doing enough against that. Air pollution is a silent killer in urban environments around the world. We'll be talking to one company collecting data to combat the problem. If we continue along today's path then that sets us up for a future where air conditioning actually become one of our single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and harnessing the power of the night sky to keep buildings cool without heating the planet. Why. It's high time for an AC redesign. I'm Kailey Leinz and this is Bloomberg Green. More than half of humanity is crowded together in cities. That's about four billion people living on top of one another working commuting and polluting. They're responsible for about 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and that proportion will only rise by 2050. The United Nations says almost 70 percent of the world's population will live in urban areas. More cities than ever are implementing measures to fight climate change and mitigate the impact of extreme weather events on their communities. And their actions will have the power to turn the tide on the climate crisis because no matter how much the world warms cities will have it worse. High temperatures rising sea levels and extreme weather are all felt more acutely in concrete jungles. In Germany an innovative climate adaption strategy is emerging to tackle these issues by imitating the very thing cities have destroyed. Nature. Cities are concrete glass and steel they look and act unnaturally absorbing heat and repelling water. Our urban spaces are at odds with the natural environment spots in parts of the German capital. Things are different to deal with rain water and heat. Berlin is being transformed into what's being called a sponge city. Isn't. And that's just one city. Is this business leaving nothing behind. Then this effort is set to be activated. Carlo Becker's the architect of Berlin Sponge City strategy which harnesses rainwater and manages heat that's less ISE and walked off. That's only a few feet. And then with in their. In a natural eco system rainwater is soaked up by soil and vegetation. The majority then evaporates and the rest filters deeper into the ground. The evaporating water then cools the surroundings. Cities disrupt this system. Water can't soak through the concrete and is piped away. The Sponge City strategy aims to keep rainwater where it lands to imitate the natural water cycle. Buildings are covered in green roofs and facades and down on street level urban wetlands and roadside trenches known as swales filter runoff and hold water keeping the city cool by imitating nature. This is Roseburg in East Berlin built 20 years ago. It's become a large scale example of the Sponge City concept. Talk to me has extensive green roof of approximately six to eight centimeters and from there the water flows into this courtyard in the middle. And underneath there is a garage on top of the underground garage. We have a soil layer of almost 80 centimeters. It's like a sponge and it soaks see the water during heavy rainfall and then it's used by the plants. So they take all the water and finally evaporated. Heiko Sica is the brains behind the neighborhood's innovative management of stormwater in the whole area. Here we have no storm sewer system so no conventional pipe system. The water flows from the road surface into this whale and from here it's infiltrating into the ground on hot summer days. You can really feel the coolness here. It's much cooler compared to other parts of the city because of the evaporation. You can say it's natural air conditioning. Roseburg is just one example of a sponge city. Neighborhoods across Berlin have implemented similar initiatives. But Berlin isn't a perfect sponge city. Our Scarlet Fu struggling with that challenge the last leg sits in the middle of summer 2017 the heaviest rain in a century hit the city submerging parts under water and warning how much work still to do. The mass noun David Westin chemo puzzles in these areas in the country because it isn't working as that's not through health and day and poor nutrition. In fact the City Council's recently decided all new developments should manage stormwater on site in the spirit of the Sponge City. Climate change is forcing Berlin and many other cities around the world to adapt urban environments transforming them to work with nature. For more from our Click Take team go to Bloomberg dot com or at Quicktake on Twitter. Coming up air pollution kills millions a year but one startup is providing means to measure harmful emissions. We'll be speaking to their CEO about how to cleanup our cities. This is Bloomberg Green. This is Bloomberg Green. I'm Jennifer Zorbas sergeant in New York with your Green Brief. The EU is planning a first of its kind of border levy to combat climate change. It plans to slap duties on imports of steel cement and aluminum from countries with lower environmental standards. The levy will be based on the carbon costs that domestic producers already face. The G7 is moving to target environmental crimes. The move is about cracking down on existing offences rather than making new laws. It wants companies to better disclose their impact on the climate but it falls short of the UK's ambition for mandatory reporting on climate risks. Final details will be ironed out at the upcoming COP 26 meeting. The western U.S. is facing its worst drought in decades. It's off the charts of anything recorded in the 20 year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Farmers cities and power suppliers are scrambling for access to water. It's also raising the risk of wildfires and making tires for an electric vehicle is a ruthless exercise in compromise. Too much stick and the car won't travel as far on a charge too little and it will silently slide off the road. But tire maker Michelin says it has found the perfect balance. After 30 years tinkering with its recipe adding 7 percent additional range to ease fitting with the tire next they want to make them fully recyclable. And that's your green free. Thanks Jen. Well air pollution in cities is a problem as old as cities themselves. The World Health Organization says that nine out of 10 people breathe air that exceeds safe levels of pollutants. In fact the WEO estimates that air pollution kills seven million people worldwide every year. A first step in tackling this problem will be accurately measuring harmful emissions so that solutions can be effectively targeted. One startup offering the hardware to do so is breathe technologists whose pollution sniffing boxes were recently shortlisted for the 2021 Future Hamburg Award. Joining me now is the founder and CEO of the company Robert Heineken. Robert first frame to me why air quality is so important. If you look at today's metropolises they just have very few data points where they're actually measuring how air quality is actually developing over time. And we are aiming to change that. So we want to give cities municipalities the government more data into the ads to accurately understand where air pollution actually comes from disperses over the city. And also what can be done. But even if policymakers are armed with that data how do you convince them to act. Now that's actually one of the biggest challenges so many cities actually are not so interested in gathering more data because it simply might just uncover additional problems. But NASA the European Space Agency are both launching new satellite missions that are going to uncover these challenges. Anyway the next decades. So the cities really have the choice whether they want to tackle this issue now and whether they want to be the ones who can actually frame the problem. The context also the solutions that are going to be implemented or whether they want to wait until some external party uncovers all the challenges that that might have. And thereby it gets out of their control. So today is really the point of time when cities can act on it themselves. So let's talk about some of those solutions that let's take Hamburg for an example where I'm based. So here the government very early on after D.C. gate started to close down roads for diesel vehicles. But the data has actually shown that this was not very efficient economically more or less stayed the same. On another in another neighborhood they actually implemented some pedestrian zoning. And there we really saw it. Those increase the attractiveness of shopping areas but it also increased the usage of public transport which in turn decreased air pollution. And then in other parts of the city or I mean in the port for instance they are trying to maintain the cruise ships and the cargo vessels that are landing there. The power from the land side instead of having them run their own generators. This of course also in turn decreases the emissions that it cost. So we really need to look at where pollution comes from local in the neighborhood and what to do about that. Is it possible to have a major metropolitan city with truly clean air. Well I was told to super. I mean I think it's going to be an ongoing journey and of course many of the technologies that we need to get there to really be able to breathe clean and fresh air. Also according to W.H. those standards are still under development. I think electric mobility will really be one of the key technologies to enable us to do that. But we also need to think about mass transit more public transport making trains public transport more attractive and also looking at for instance last mile delivery and how to solve that issue without having polluting vehicles and transportation in our cities. Aside from emissions and pollution are there other areas in which air quality data can help mitigate issues. Well the climate change issue of course. So a lot of the air pollutants that we are tracking like for instance ozone also particulate matter are at the same time. Also climate fluid short climate. So if we tackle the air quality issue in our cities then at the same time that's the same budget that is being spent on that. We're actually also on our way to solving the climate issue. All right Robert Heineken founder and CEO of Reis Technologies. Thank you so much. Coming up what's the technology with the fastest growing appetite for electricity. It's not cars. It's air conditioning. We look next to the companies trying to cool buildings without heating the planet. This is Bloomberg Green. From Bloomberg side quarters in New York I'm Kelly Limes and this is Bloomberg Green. Heat waves killed more than any other extreme weather event. More than tornadoes hurricanes and even floods. And the urban heat island effect means that city dwellers are most at risk. How do we combat that. Air conditioners. But in this instance the solution is just creating another problem. If things stay as they are air conditioning will use as much electricity by 2050 as the entirety of India and China today. So we took a look at how scientists from across the globe are harnessing natural phenomena to drastically redesign the century old technology. Today's air conditioning and refrigeration systems essentially follow the same principles that have been around for about 100 years. If we continue along today's path then that sets us up for a future where air conditioning can actually become one of our single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions later this century. Air conditioners have become an inescapable part of our cities. They operate thanks to refrigerants chemicals which when released into the atmosphere a potent greenhouse gases. AC units also require huge amounts of energy. The U.S. uses more electricity for cooling than Africa does for everything. As it becomes affordable for millions more people. The problems that come with a sea will only get worse which is why scientists around the world are searching for solutions. Here at the National University of Singapore Professor Tula and his team are completely rethinking air conditioning clean it up on the Libyan air conditioning to save energy. Secondly it's a safe environment. What we have in the lab is next generation of air conditioners. That is extremely environmentally friendly. Less energy intensive. It doesn't inject heated environment and that doesn't mean they cannot go refugee. Yes I'd want a basic air conditioning. It requires only a little order to pay for 20 hours. You can use rainwater to pile up the system. But that's a limitation and it needs to be dry before you can carry out this processing that efficient way. And that's why there are two separate stages in this AC. First it dries the air using membranes that filter the moisture. Then the water inside the unit evaporates. Taking heat with it it's close to what most of us experience every day sweating. The system uses 30 percent less energy than a traditional air conditioner. And it's also expected to be 30 percent cheaper. Crucially it uses no refrigerants although it's not available yet. The government is backing this project betting that soon it could be a breath of fresh air for Singapore and beyond. Across the other side of the world one startup in California is looking towards outer space to revolutionize cooling and they're about to test that breakthrough in the field. Right now we measure the temperature of our surface. It's around 48 degrees Fahrenheit. And the air temperature is 60 Fahrenheit. We're not evaporating water and we're not using any electricity. You can see we're in the middle of a field and it is just a thin film coating that enables this cooling effect. And it does this 24 hours a day seven days a week. Sky cool systems as commercializing a technology that harnesses the cold of the sky and space to enable electricity free cooling as implausible as that may sound at first glance the way it works is it takes advantage of a natural phenomenon that allows a surface that's looking up to the sky to essentially send out some of its heat. Nearly everything on earth gives off heat in the form of infrared radiation cycles panels like high tech mirrors reflecting some of that heat out to the cold expanse of space along its surface to dip below the temperature of the surrounding sky calls multilayered. Film means that it's now possible to achieve even during the day. The panels could be added on to today's cooling systems reducing their energy use by as much as 20 percent. The energy we use for cooling is expected to grow six fold by the year 2050 and it's primarily going to be driven in warmer countries where air conditioning use is not prevalent today. What excites us about our technology is that it represents a unique and completely different way of handling the cooling problem by taking use of a resource that's always been there. The fact that space is cold it's almost like this has been literally over our heads for centuries millennia. But it's something we've not been able to use as a technology. With the demand for air conditioning skyrocketing using water and the cold outer space may turn out to be best bet we have from warming cities. So between fixing the problems of heat water and pollution. Cities have a lot to do to adapt. But as well those facing the greatest problems are urban environments could also be our best hope for surviving climate change. Let's bring in our green reporter Laura Meehan in Madrid to talk further about these solutions. Laura as we've seen cities consume two thirds of the global energy supply. So aren't they the source of the problem rather than the solution. Well yes the yard but mainly because we are the source of the problem. Emissions by humans are what's making the planet warmer. Through our research we have found that cities warm more and faster than rural areas and we feel sea level rise more than than areas that are not urbanized. But cities can also be part of this sort of the solution just because so many human beings live in them. So many changes through history have come from cities and so much money is invested in cities and from cities. Cities can be part of the solution as well. So if cities want to reduce carbon emissions what are some of the most popular solutions. What we're seeing is lots of measures being implemented across the world at the moment. One of the most popular ones is called the 15 Minute City which is this concept that start that in ferries but has spread almost all over the world where local authorities are trying to make cities more friendly to people reduce traffic reduce pollution increase the number of green areas and get people to walk more. All of these things reduce emissions and reduce the city's impact on the environment. But Laura the cities with the biggest carbon footprint aren't Paris or Barcelona. They're in emerging markets. How do we decarbonise those. That's the second lender. That's a big challenge. So cities in emerging markets are huge. Their impact therefore is huge as well. And usually local authorities and even the states themselves have as many resources to tackle these issues as a big city in Europe or the US. My path. And yet we are seeing and through a number of green investigation we saw how many of the cities in Latin America in Africa and in Asia are implementing very negative measures to address climate change. So in a big city it's not enough to implement a 15 minute city measures like making streets friendly for pedestrians. But we have seen cities like Bogota the capital of Colombia trying to implement a massive overhaul of their public transport system. It's right now one of the world's biggest rapid bus transit systems in the world. This means that instead of building very expensive metro lines for example they use buses that go through a special lanes. The city is now this. This system is working now. And the city is now trying to make it electric to reduce the impact of these buses on on air pollution and on emissions. For example if you're tight on resources it's best to be efficient. So what does the research tell us about the most efficient ways that cities can go green. That's right. So a recent report. US something quite interesting actually. Many cities are not spending the money where that money is better spent. Sometimes it's because cities can only focus on one thing when they should be focusing maybe on four or five other times. It's because these measures are not the most attractive or the most popular ones with citizens. But for example we know that research does is that the most efficient way of spending money to address climate issues in cities is to address building efficiency make buildings more efficient so they leak less heat. They need less energy to be heated or cooled. Also public transport measures waste and green areas are some of the fields where the money can be well spent. Thanks very much to our Bloomberg Green reporter in Madrid Laura Meehan. That's it for this week's edition on The Future of Cities. But keep the conversation going. Follow us on Twitter at Climate. I'm Kayleigh Lines. This is Bloomberg Green.

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Bloomberg Green: Your City Isn't Climate-Proof

More than half of humanity is crowded together in cities: working, commuting and polluting. That's only set to grow. From LA to Berlin to Singapore, urban areas are on the front lines of the climate crisis. Because no matter how much the world warms, cities will have it worse. This week - we look at how we solve the climate problems of today and what we need to do to build the sustainable cities of tomorrow. (Source: Bloomberg)

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