Cities

Towards Sustainable Cities. Urbanization profoundly impacts the Earth system, causing habitat loss, deforestation, changing species interactions, and even unbalancing the water cycle.

• 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, although cities represent only 2% of the Earth’s surface.  This proportion is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 – an additional 2.5 billion people.
  
• 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions are produced in cities.
• 78% of the world’s energy is consumed in cities, according to UN-Habitat.