Climatic change and the built environment

The energy metabolism of developed countries’ cities is the main cause of climate change. If countries’ cities follow the same development path and reproduce the same system – and unfortunately most signs suggest that this is happening – there is way to escape global warming and its effects. The analysis carried out in the present tells us that, to mitigate the impact of global warming, the development paths of rich and poor cities must converge to a new, low-carbon energy system, capable of a minimum acceptable quality of life for the poorest inhabitant of a shanty town preserving the present high quality of life of the wealthiest inhabitant of a rich city. analysis also shows that there are all the necessary technological means for cities enter the path of sustainable development, intrinsically capable of meeting the of both mitigating the global warming process and improving the quality of life.