At the middle of last Century, two thirds of the world population lived in the rural areas of the planet. One hundred years later, in 2050, two thirds of the population (equal to 6 billion people) will live in urban areas.
Migration of rural population to cities equates the construction of seven cities the size of Chicago per year.
Even so, the territory occupied by all the cities of the world represents only 5% of the world’s territory. These cities, however, are responsible for 70% of global energy consumption and greenhouse gases emission.
Latin America is already the second most urbanized region of the globe (behind North America) with 80% of its population residing in cities. It is estimated that until 2050, 90% of the new urban population will reside in emerging and developing countries.
According to the United Nations, the trends of urbanization that we see on a global scale in the 21st century are far from those observerd in the past, in terms of urban transition.
Urbanization occurs with lower levels of economic development and the majority of urban settlements will take place in small and medium urban centers. The expansion of these centers is twice as fast as population growth, with significant impacts on climate change process. By 2030 there would be around 40 urban centers of more than 10 million inhabitants each.
Half of the global growth of the GDP between 2010 and 2025 will come from some 440 cities in emerging economies, 95% of small or medium urban centers whose names we hardly know today.
In this context, marked by greater connectivity, it is evident that the authority moves away, more and more, from traditional power centres to those levels closer to the people, where the problems occur.
