News & blogs

Featuring voices from cities, experts, and partners, these stories of innovation and impact are drawn from across the GPSC’s global network. News and blogs showcase progress, lessons, and thought leadership on sustainable urban development.
Featured news

Building connections to support sustainability across the world's cities

The role of cities in addressing environmental challenges is both critical and transformative. By 2050, 75 percent of the global population is expected to live in urban areas, creating immense pressures on resources, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Amid these challenges, the UrbanShift initiative, funded by the Global Environment Facility, links and amplifies the efforts of complementary global programs using an integrated approach to create the sustainable, low-carbon, and nature-positive cities that we need. Decarbonizing cities to mitigate climate change Cities are
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Experts take first step towards GEF-9 replenishment

With less than five years on the clock to meet key international environmental targets, experts gathered this week to discuss strategic choices that can make a lasting positive difference for people and the planet. The Technical Advisory Group meetings were the formal start of the Global Environment Facility’s ninth replenishment process, which will set the framework, size, and ambition of GEF funding provided to developing countries in the July 2026 to June 2030 period. Environmental scientists, technical experts, and practitioners
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Featured blogs

Riding into a greener future: How widespread use of subways could slash CO₂ emissions The climate crisis is getting worse, with both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and COP28 in its final agreement emphasizing the urgency of steep greenhouse gas emissions reductions to keep global warming below 1.5°C as overshooting 1.5° C might have a catastrophic impact. Given that urban areas may account for over 70 percent of global CO₂ emissions, many public policy analysts began advocating for public investment in low-carbon mass transit, particularly in countries that are not yet locked
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Transforming our cities: a collective path to sustainability What do sustainable cities mean to you? For many, it is about more than just green spaces and clean air. Sustainable cities are the nexus where innovative solutions converge to create resilient communities, fostering a delicate balance between economic prosperity, ecological integrity, and social equity. With urban sprawl encroaching upon natural habitats and climate change-induced disasters becoming more frequent, which pose threats to ecosystems, biodiversity, human health, and overall well-being, the need for building sustainable cities has never been more
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Why Should Asset Managers Care About Biodiversity? Biodiversity loss is set to significantly disrupt the world economy over the next decade. Despite the data and engagement challenges ahead, systematic and discretionary portfolio managers should not be deterred. 1. Introduction In the final days of 2022, a historic UN agreement on protecting nature was reached in Montreal at COP15. 1 Nearly 200 countries signed up for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a deal designed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. Among the four goals and 23
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The World Bank’s Global Platform for Sustainable Cities wishes to share with you the statement by the Convention on Biological Diversity Adapting Cities for
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Previously in this blog series, we flagged the need to embed road safety systematically in a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) project within a five step TOD
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Did you know that in 2004 in Colombia, the Mayor's Office of Medellín inaugurated "Metrocable", the first cable car in Latin America (and the world) that
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Every day, the world awakens to news of another heatwave, flood, drought, tropical cyclone, wildfire, or other climate-induced natural hazard. The new report by
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Imagine a city with safe roads, where people and traffic mix make for streets that are healthy, green, and liveable. A city that can finance improvements to
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The World Bank’s webinar series “Bringing Nature to Cities: Integrated Urban Solutions to Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change” promotes integrated urban
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Integrated programming was a key component of the GEF-6 replenishment cycle and a priority for implementation of the GEF 2020 strategy. The focus was on
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The recent flood events in China’s Henan Province and parts of Europe are a poignant reminder of the power of water and its devastating impacts. Floods are
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This project is helping to move China’s emerging megacities off of a high-polluting car-oriented trajectory by applying eight low carbon design principles
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A first-of-its-kind World Bank analysis, of the shape and growth of nearly 10,000 cities between 1990 and 2015, finds that the most successful urban areas are
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