Why we must sustain a global conversation on clean air

On Tuesday this week, we have launched in Delhi, India the second year of the three-year global conversation series “Imagine 2060: Delivering Tomorrow’s Cities Together” which we co-developed with Asia Society. We’re focusing our 2018 conversation on Air, under the theme “Towards a Clear Sky”. The World Health Organization estimates that 92% of the people on the planet are living in places where the air does not meet minimum safety requirements. 

There was nowhere more apt to hold the launch of our Imagine 2060 conversation on Air, than in Delhi.  In 2018, for the first time in its history, Delhi is categorized as a mega-hub, and an Emerging World City in the “Universe of City Indices 2018”. At the same time, like many mega-hubs, it faces the challenge of air pollution.  We were not raising a conversation on Delhi just for Delhi’s sake. We were raising a conversation for all of the world’s rising mega-cities, and bringing together a diversity of stakeholders, including leaders in renewable energy, urban planning, transportation and public policy, to imagine and collaborate on a sustainable future holistically for these iconic cities, and beyond. 

Here are a couple of ideas that struck a chord with participants. As Emeritus Senior Minister for the Republic of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong, former Prime Minister of Singapore, put forth in his keynote, there has to be the political will. In the case of Singapore, it has become a fine city because it is a “fine city” where environmental violation is kept in check. 

Amitabh Kant, CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India, highlighted the need for the nation to develop a new approach because the paths being forged by other nations do not apply. India is at a different stage of urbanization at a different time.

Visit https://imagine2060.aecom.com/2018-air/ where we’ll be sharing more of the conversation in Delhi very soon, and accumulating more ideas as we go to Melbourne and Hong Kong later this year.

There also has to be readiness and the mechanism to share intellectual assets that will improve air quality, because air quality is not confined by borders so collaboration is key.

Everyone who plays a direct role in planning, designing and delivering the built environment, knows that it is critical that we stretch our imagination far beyond now. If we are to anticipate and deliver the built environment that will enable us to not just survive, but to thrive in the future, we have to start with the end in mind and we have to start moving towards that end right now, and collaborate because none of us can get it done on our own, but we can get it done together. 

I look forward to your participation in this global conversation on Air. Check out the global conversation for our first year, on Water under the theme of At the Water’s Edge at https://imagine2060.aecom.com/