The Urban Report: From FORESIGHT Climate & Energy, The Urban Report is a podcast that takes a close look at how cities around the world are transitioning to net-zero.

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   “Space is becoming a sparse resource in cities around the world, and to some extent, also in Copenhagen. And this obviously challenges us in the way that we develop the city.” Welcome to The Urban Question, a special series of the Urban Report podcast from FORESIGHT Climate &...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   "We have to combine a low-emission building with high-absorption city nature." Welcome to The Urban Question, a special series of the Urban Report podcast from FORESIGHT Climate & Energy in association with Bloxhub, the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanisation and the WRLD...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   "Human design is and always must be starting from the lived experience of its users." Welcome to The Urban Question, a special series of the Urban Report podcast from FORESIGHT Climate & Energy in association with Bloxhub, the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanisation and t...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   During European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s first term from 2019 to 2024, climate change was arguably at the top of the political agenda. The European Commission tabled a huge package of laws aimed at slashing emissions across the bloc, framing the new “Green...

When it comes to reducing building emissions, knowing where to start is not always easy—buildings vary in size and shape, serve diverse purposes, and construction methods differ, sometimes quite drastically, by geographic location. Given this diversity, what are the steps that we can take to reduce the carbon output of the built environment?  The Energy Transitions Commission, a coalition of...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   Post World War II, American cities were the envy of the world. With booming industries, towering skyscrapers, and highways full of cars, US cities symbolised the country’s soaring quality of life. Today, however, the position of American cities has faded—many US urban centres...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   “There are many factors which contribute to the housing crisis. Maybe it is a lack of supply, a lack of new buildings. But in fact, I think it is also a lack of smartness—smartness in how we really use our existing housing stock," Oliver Rapf , the Executive Director of the B...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   The energy used to heat, cool and power buildings is responsible for 28% of energy-related carbon emissions globally. Reducing the energy consumed in buildings, therefore, is an effective way to mitigate the climate impact of the building stock. Installing power-efficient lig...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.   Across Europe, the housing crisis is being felt deeply. Young people in particular are frequently unable to buy or rent a home close to their job or social ties, oftentimes leaving them stranded in their family home.  For the first time, the EU has taken on the challenge...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. In Spain, the effects of climate change are shockingly apparent: cities across the Mediterranean country have seen property destroyed, lives lost, and urban areas devastated as a result of extreme weather and wildfires.    For local governments, the need to make their citi...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. When it comes to why people opt for a petrol or diesel car over an electric vehicle (EV), one of the most common reasons is that the cost of an electric vehicle is still too high. However, new charging technology is set to bring down the total cost of EV ownership, making the switch...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. The Trump administration has rapidly undone much of the country’s climate mitigation progress. In contrast, many local and regional leaders are determined to do more. Commissioner Brigid Shea of Travis County, Texas, joins the Urban Report to discuss how cities are responding to the...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While science fiction’s predictions of flying vehicles may not have materialised yet, innovations in the field of transport have changed how we get from A to B. The range of mobility modes on offer in our cities today would seem futuristic to people from a few decades ago, such as d...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Across Europe, the number of young adults living with their parents until an older age is rising, thanks largely to soaring housing prices. Between 2015 and 2023, the cost of renting or owning a home in the EU increased by 48% .    For the first time, the European Union is...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Buildings are responsible for around a third of the European Union’s energy-related emissions, making them a prime target for green measures. To reduce the built environment’s carbon footprint, recently agreed EU legislation requires a portion of the bloc’s buildings to be made more...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has found that the world is not on track to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. It warns there is a “ rapidly narrowing window to raise ambition and implement existing commitments” . In 2024, the Financial Times repor...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Every year, millions of people from around the globe flock to the Spanish city of Barcelona to experience its sunny weather, world-famous architecture and delicious cuisine. By some estimates , the city receives around 32 million visitors annually, making it one of the most visited...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While climate measures that cover a nation must be applicable in settings that are urban and rural, rich and poor, and of diverse geographies, city-level measures can be far more tailored to local challenges, allowing progress to be made more quickly. Bristol in the southwest of Eng...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While reducing emissions is a global goal, the means of doing so inevitably varies by region. Climate mitigation measures must adapt to diverse contexts, making one-size-fits-all solutions difficult to apply.  The built environment provides a particularly salient example of how...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Carbon markets, where polluters pay for their carbon emissions, are being increasingly used by regulators to spur industry and rein in greenhouse gas emissions. In the European Union, plans are afoot to extend the bloc’s carbon trading system to road transport and buildings, with th...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Freiburg is widely considered Germany’s environmental capital, earning the moniker “Green City” thanks to its sustainability principles. Mayor Martin Horn joins the Urban Report to discuss the city’s environmental ambitions and how Europe can avoid succumbing to “destructive frustra...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. While much of climate legislation is agreed upon in national capitals or by international bodies like the EU, most of these laws are implemented in cities.   This means that local and regional governments need the right staff, with the right expertise, to ensure measures a...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. A new transport plan in the Irish capital aims to cut car traffic by 40%. The move is part of a broader effort to make city living more pleasant by reallocating space to walking, cycling and public transport. Felijn Jose, a Green Party councillor in Dublin, joins The Urban Report to...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Households across Europe are unable to pay their energy bills, leaving occupants afraid to cook warm meals or turn on the heating in cold weather. Louise Sunderland of the Regulatory Assistance Project joins The Urban Report to discuss the measures in place to tackle energy poverty...

Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. It’s predicted that artificial intelligence and machine learning will fundamentally alter our societies in the coming decades. Rahul Chillar from Siemens Smart Infrastructure joins The Urban Report to discuss how these digital technologies can be used to cut energy usage and reduce...