Last year, the world’s population crossed the eight billion mark. It took the human family 125 years to get from one billion to two billion but only 12 years to advance from seven billion to eight billion. More than four billion of us live in cities today, with 1.5 million additional city dwellers added each week. This growth means greater diversity, infinite opportunities, and endless possibilities. However, we also face more challenges as cities contribute 70% of all carbon emissions. With resources quickly diminishing, we need to pause and re-think how we urbanize while taking care of our natural and built environment. The construction sector and professionals of the built environment that work for them play a key role in ensuring that we find solutions. Cities and city managers are at the frontline of crises: Covid-19, climate change, conflicts, and a lack of capital. We need to help them to make our habitat more sustainable and resilient. Not everything is doom and gloom, though. We see change happening. We simply need to accelerate it. Many construction companies, architects, and urban planners have started thinking about sustainability and resilience to climate change, focusing on more environment-friendly and energy-efficient designs. With one major ambition: creating a better quality of life for people now and for the generations to come. Collectively, we have also started to not only think about building more sustainable and resilient buildings but also adapting and rehabilitating existing structures – to make our houses more efficient and sustainable. It is important to look at regenerating neighborhoods and communities in our cities. And not only think about building new structures. EDITORIAL By Maimunah Mohd Sharif UNUnder-Secretary-General and ExecutiveDirector of UN-Habitat To overcome challenges and create better cities, we need a whole-house or whole-society approach. It is not enough to demand action from the construction sector alone. We need holistic solutions, from better policies and better building standards to designing and implementing better urban models. Then, we also need businesses to adopt and scale these models. And communities and people to embrace them. We also want to understand the current gaps. Once we know what we miss and what we need to do, we can act and support initiatives to make human settlements more environmentally and socially sustainable. It is our chance to create a better quality of life for the eight billion people currently living on our planet. And leave a better world for the billions yet to come. 3 CONSTRUCTING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
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