Cologny – Cities, not nation states, will determine our future survival, argues the World Economic Forum. In contrast to closed, parochial nation states, cities are places of innovation and prosperity.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), nation states are looking out-dated and even dangerous. Cities in contrast are open, plural and cosmopolitan. Already today they are responsible for generating over two-thirds of global GDP, and urbanisation is set to increase this with an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population expected to be living in cities by 2030.

But while cities are taking bold steps towards agitating for a new urban agenda with coalitions such as C40 or the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy promoting connectivity between cities, the WEF warns that the world’s cities “will need to do more than swap good ideas if humanity is to survive this century”. 

A first step to empowering cities to reduce carbon emissions, resource consumption and other risks such as income inequality, unemployment and crime is to ensure they have access to basic information – not only on the risks they face but also on how they themselves are adapting. This is particularly the case for cities in the Americas, Africa and Asia, which suffer from a critical information shortfall yet will be responsible for 90 per cent of all future population growth.

Examples of information include data visualisations that show how climate change will affect neighbourhoods, such as from rising sea levels, or time lapses that offer a glimpse into tomorrow’s landscape. The WEF is also calling for making data visualisations open to the public, especially museums, universities and schools.