Global: Investment firm NREP is partnering with C40, a network of city mayors collaborating to deliver action on the climate crisis, to launch a 15-minute city project.
The partners are joining forces to launch the Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods programme and “support interdisciplinary approaches that make urban areas more sustainable, equitable and liveable”.
The programme will deliver proof of concept for 15-minute city policies and empower cities around the globe to implement ambitious net-zero and people-centred neighbourhoods. The programme will implement pilot projects in at least five cities. It will also create a dedicated international network of city practitioners that will work together, advise and learn from one another to build and expand green and thriving urban neighbourhoods.
Compact and resource-efficient cities, with co-location of residences and jobs, mixed land use and good access to public transportation, can help cut urban emissions by around 25 per cent, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Strategic partners in C40’s new Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods programme include UN-Habitat and Carlos Moreno, recognised for his work on a framework for 15-minute cities that expands access to a variety of jobs, housing types, goods and services, including green spaces and clean air, to residents.
C40 executive director Mark Watts said: “The 15-minute city helps to realise an ‘ecological society’ that urban residents and their leaders strive for. By promoting polycentric urban development and a thriving local lifestyle in every neighbourhood, it can help cities to reduce emissions and pollution from cars while improving quality of life. This new programme will empower cities to implement the concept on the ground, and to deliver ‘green and thriving neighbourhoods’ pilot projects.”
NREP CEO and partner Claus Mathisen said: “As much as 60 to 70 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions come from cities, so the quest for greener urban solutions is urgent. This partnership is an opportunity to shape what a sustainable and equitable city is and to create a blueprint for urban development that will help not only cities to drive ambitious urban policies but also business and other stakeholders to engage and adapt their operational models.”
Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of UN-Habitat and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, said: “The built stock of our cities and towns will double by 2050. How we meet the climate crisis depends on the quality of what we build, where we build, and how we build it. Past urban development models increasingly promote sprawl and segregation. We must find our way back to urbanise in harmony with nature and people. A model like the 15-minute city can help us to do this, but must be accompanied by the right policy and fiscal instruments.”
Carlos Moreno, director of Pantheon-Sorbonne University’s ETI Lab, said: “The 15-minute city framework can help cities to increase sustainability, inclusion and economic equity. The framework can contribute to the deep decarbonisation of cities, and it can be adapted to a variety of contexts.”
NREP will bring know-how and experience from some of the world’s most sustainable large-scale development projects, including Copenhagen’s UN17 Village and Nordhavn, which has been designed around the principles of the 15-minute city. The partnership between C40 and NREP will “empower cities around the world to implement ambitious net-zero 15-minute city neighbourhoods”. It will develop integrated climate actions at the neighbourhood scale that can be applied in both new and existing neighbourhoods.
C40 is a network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities “who are working to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone, everywhere can thrive”. Mayors of C40 cities are committed to using a science-based and people-focused approach to help the world limit global heating to 1.5°C and build healthy, equitable and resilient communities. Through a Global Green New Deal, mayors are working alongside a broad coalition of representatives from labour, business, the youth climate movement and civil society to go further and faster than ever before. The current chair of C40 is mayor of London Sadiq Khan; three-term mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg serves as president of the board. C40’s work is made possible by its three strategic funders: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and Realdania.
NREP manages seven million square metres of real estate projects across Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Poland, and has committed to achieving a net-zero real estate portfolio by 2028. It has more than 600 employees across Europe, and assets of €18 billion under management.
