Cities guzzle energy and have exploding populations, but they can play a key role in solving climate change, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on the sidelines of the COP31 climate talks.
Khan, who co-chairs C40 Cities, a network dedicated to tackling global warming, told AFP in an interview about his vision for cities, sustainable data centres, and why the climate and cost-of-living crises are linked.
Question: UN climate talks are negotiated at the national level. What role do cities have here?
Answer: "It's really exciting that for the first time what you'll see at COP is a mayor addressing the world leaders summit, and I think that's a recognition... that cities have a huge role to play.
"More than half the world's population lives in cities. We consume more than 70 percent of energy. We can be a problem or we can be a solution, and this shows that we're seen very much as a solution, turning this climate catastrophe into an opportunity."
Q: How can we deal with climate change in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis?
A: "One of the things we've seen in London is the costs of inaction far outweigh the costs of action.
"In London this year, like in other parts of the globe, we had extreme weather... We've calculated heat waves meant our economy lost £2.5 billion in lost productivity -- over 10 years, that's £25 billion in lost productivity. That's before you get to the costs of wildfires and ill health and death and so forth...
"We've seen the cost of living going up because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. We've seen because of President Trump's actions in Iran the cost of fuel going up.
"The best way for a country like ours to be energy secure is renewables, wind, solar and nuclear. So I think people are starting to realise there's a link between the cost of living and fossil fuels."
Q: Your London data-centre plans have sparked controversy. What is your response?
A: "Many of us use data centres indirectly, whether it's use of AI or public services or financial services. We've got to make sure that we address the issues, though, of data centres in terms of the energy they use, in terms of the water they use, in terms of the impact on the grid.
"What we've done in London is, we're consulting on a draft London plan. We want our data centres to be sustainable. We want the communities to benefit from them. We want to make sure they've got a closed loop when it comes to how they're cooled down.
"So we're making sure that we've got the best possible policies in terms of any data centres that will be given official (permission) in London. Across the globe, we're working with C40 cities -- there's 96 (members) -- on a sustainable data-centres strategy to make sure we recognise that, yes, many of us may need data centres, but it's going to be done in a sensible, proportionate way."
Q: Do you agree with those who say the expectations for COP31 are limited?
A: "I'm incredibly hopeful about our ability to tackle the climate emergency. I'm hopeful because of the results we've seen in elections in Serbia... in Brazil... in the midterms in the USA.
"The energy outside is quite encouraging... We are hopeful, and the evidence I've seen in terms of the solutions cities are bringing forward... is really encouraging."