Monday,3rdofDecember,2040

SUSTAINABILITY TODAY

Victory of the Battle for Blue Skies! Today marks the 25th anniversary of the ‘Battle for Blue skies’ initiative launched at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). The aim of this initiative was to eradicate city smog as a bid to improve the sustainability and health of cities. As little as 20 years ago cities such as Beijing, Delhi and Los Angeles suffered immense amounts of smog, sometimes rendering visibility to less than 200 meters.

Commuters covering their face to protect from smog.

Cancers and damage to the atmosphere caused by the smog reached such a peak that by 2015 world leaders felt forced to face this problem. Dependency on coal and fossil fuel based transportation were the two

biggest challenges policy makers faced.

Smog Blanket over Los Angeles.

In order to counteract this dependency a paradigm shift was required. The transition from grey to green. An intergovernmental network was formed whose sole purpose was research and solution generation. This required considerable funding, however, it was calculated that the cost that poor public health would have on the economy far outweighed it. In addition to counteracting negative health effects, governments were also concerned with the growing fossil fuel crisis and realised the immediate need for a transition to sustainable energy sources. After the initial impetus however, the momentum of the project

Monday,3rdofDecember,2040fizzled out and by 2020 minimal progress had been made. This resulted in mass protests that had been building up since 2017. The magnitude of these protests was the likes of which had rarely been seen before and governments could no longer turn a blind eye. As a means to calm the protests governments set up new ‘Transitional Management’ teams who would oversee and coordinate the creation and implementation of long term solutions to the smog problem. These Transitional Management teams ensured that goals were met and that high levels of inter-sectorial communication were achieved. This led to the swift implementation of new technologies and systems that

had been developed in previous years.

Green walls systems in London

Now, 25 years after the launch of the Battle for Blue Skies, cities across the globe enjoy the use of green walls, urban micro-agriculture systems, and the electric vehicles that now make up 90% of all traffic on solar roads, all of which have contributed to the 95% reduction in urban smog.

Paris, summer 2040