Smart cities – EURACTIV.com

SPECIAL REPORT / By 2018, mobile operators will take more revenue globally from pure data than from their traditional voice services as the world moves towards hyper-connected cities, industry analysts predict. But technological standards remain scarce, EURACTIV reports from the the GSMA conference in Barcelona.

What is the current state of broadband in Europe? There is going to be an increasing demand of broadband traffic over the next five years, and operators need to be ready to address this demand. What will happen if operators are not ready for increased demand?

The European Union adopted a new strategy yesterday (6 May) aimed at promoting green infrastructure, and putting natural processes at the heart of its spatial planning.

Despite the massive funding available for the development of smart cities in China, and the leading role that the US is playing in hi-tech city infrastructure, Europe remains a key player in the development of interconnected urban spaces, according to Microsoft’s Joel Cherkis.

Energy is at the top of the agenda in Europe, today. Macro-economics and geopolitics aside, Brussels' decision makers should devote more attention to the local level, where the fight is taken up by citizens and mayors alike, Zbigniew Michniowski writes.

Research shows that cities across the world have lost the sense of neighbourhood and community living that used to make people feel more connected to each other and urban environments happier places to live.

The Smart City World Congress provides a platform for innovators to meet with people who can implement their ideas. This year's edition is promoting projects that solve everyday problems. EURACTIV's partner El País - Planeta Futuro reports.

The UN climate change summit (COP21), which opens in Paris next week, “will be meaningless” if it doesn’t include a positive agenda for economic growth, warns Jeremy Rifkin.

The cities of the developed world are beginning to adapt to climate change, but financing for adaptation in the Global South is far harder to come by, according to a study published in the journal Nature. Our partner Journal de l'Environnement reports.

The European Commission is pushing local authorities to digitise cities and make them more efficient—one radical plan bubbling up could minimise the number of cars on city streets.

The European Commission’s vision of an Energy Union with citizens at its core, where consumers take ownership of the energy transition, is to be applauded but needs to be followed up with genuine policy change, writes Jonathan Gaventa.

Saving energy consumption in buildings will play a key part in Europe’s transition to a clean, secure and efficient energy system.

A network of major European cities has called on the EU to place its members at the heart of efforts to boost digital skills, tackle unemployment and prepare citizens for the high value jobs of the future.

Repatriating competences to the member states is not going to help citizens enjoy a better environment, Jeremy Wates tells EURACTIV Slovakia.

DR Congo’s impasse between an unplanned urbanisation of slum expansion and a dystopian dream world of Dubai-inspired gated compounds is on display at a show in Brussels – the former colonial master of what is now one of the world’s poorest countries.

Africa’s population will double by 2050, according to a new report from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) in Washington – posing serious questions about the sustainabililty of the world’s poorest continent.

Local and regional authorities are stepping up their efforts to fight climate change, but limited access to finance often holds them back, Philippe Orliange told Cécile Barbière from EURACTIV France.

Politicians should be less concerned with protecting the polluting industries of the past and invest instead in the future, said Vidar Helgesen, calling on policymakers to speed up the transition to a green economy with environmental taxation schemes.

EXCLUSIVE / One of the keynote announcements of Jean-Claude Juncker's State of the Union address last week was the European External Investment Plan. EU development aid chief Neven Mimica gives the details in an interview with EURACTIV.com

Those familiar with Brussels’ routines know that, at this time of the year, EU institutions’ representatives gather to agree on the budget for 2017. Negotiations are known to be passionate, to say the least, writes Tamira Gunzburg.

Latest Images