Our recent Cities of the Future series looks at the role our cities play in fostering innovation. Cities are typically productive places, helped by the concentration of human capital, the presence of advanced infrastructure, and the clusters of firms that promote knowledge sharing and innovation. According to the EU Commission, the average worker in an EU city produces 1.5 times more output than the average worker in the region’s rural areas.

These centres of productivity have the potential to drive innovation. Indeed, OECD-based metropolitan areas account for more than 70% of patents and patent applications in member countries. Furthermore, the higher concentration of younger people in cities are more likely to adopt innovative new technologies in their personal and business capacities. According to the UN, in 2020, 55% of those aged 15-24 live in urban areas.

Innovation in cities will be particularly important for climate change mitigation and adaptation. From a mitigation perspective, the 70% of GHG emissions produced by cities will increase as urbanisation continues at pace. To make matters worse, as we will see from the Jakarta example, cities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, be it extreme weather events, the rise of sea levels or heatwaves.

Cities are thus often leaders in climate policy commitments and action. As part of the Cities Race to Zero campaign, more than 1,000 cities in 50 countries have made a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, even in cases where there is no corresponding national mandate. Oslo has set a target to reduce its emissions by 95% by 2030, whereas Norway’s government has pledged to meet this target only by 2050. At an aggregate level, Oxford University’s ‘Net Zero’ project shows cities have more ambitious GHG emission reduction pledges.