Where you live is as important as what you eat

And then there’s recognizing the role that people can play, either in the work they do or support.

Cities are not uniform What can cities around the world teach each other?

Therefore: intersectoral governance mechanisms. It sounds like three boring words, but it really makes a big difference.

This means that it is often very difficult to get data to be interpretable across sectors. For example, if you can’t show what the health consequences of extreme heat are, it’s very difficult to build momentum. In many places, either exposures are not measured, health outcomes are not measured, or they are too difficult to collect.

The second point is agility. Especially in cities where there is a high degree of informality. Sometimes informality in society translates into informality in government, which means you can adapt very quickly to changing circumstances and changing realities.

Let me give you an example. In Cape Town, before the pandemic, it was very difficult to work in different sectors. But during the pandemic, one of the key responses was to move from a sector approach to a place approach. So instead of you being the Minister of Housing, you were placed in charge of the entire city. They were able to adapt.

This ability is going to be something that is increasingly necessary because the climate platform we’ve created for ourselves means we’re going to have these significant social disruptions. And we have to have ways to not only run cities in peacetime, but for want of a better word, to actually adapt in the context of a social disruption.

The third is the vision in terms of planning. This is something you see very prominently in Asia and the Middle East. A long-term vision for shaping a healthy, climate-resilient space, with awareness of how your demographics are changing.

If you know you will have an aging population, what is your vision for the actual aging population in the next 30 years? You see this expressed strongly and everywhere in terms of strategy in cities in some parts of the world.

Join Talullah Oni and our world-class speaker line-up at WIRED Impact, November 21, at The London Magazine as we explore the challenges and opportunities for organizations to innovate to tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges. Get tickets now: events.wired.co.uk/impact