Experts believe the quickening pace of urbanization will help generate economic growth for cities and serve as an important contributor to the global economy.

A World Bank report in 2020 predicted that by 2050, the urban population will more than double in size, with nearly 7 in 10 people living in cities. 

Cities have progressively become hubs for human activities as people seek better living conditions and job opportunities. This is because cities run and deliver services for residents through a complex mix of private, public and civil society actors, Will Symons, climate and sustainability leader at Deloitte Asia Pacific, told CGTN. 

"And we did an evaluation of Sydney on how many different actors it took to run Sydney and there were over 100 separate organizations," Symons said, adding that a good and livable city attracts talent and creates job opportunities that, in turn, strengthen the city and make it more attractive.

Containing negative impact of urbanization

Urbanization brings advantages to local economies, especially in developing countries with an adequate young labor force, driving infrastructure construction and helping breed labor-intensive industries to sustain job opportunities for new city dwellers.

This is essential for channeling funding for financing city construction. "I think that sustainability is multidimensional. It also should include the financial aspect because without financial liabilities, sustainable urbanization cannot really be viable," said Zhu Xian, vice president and secretary general of the International Finance Forum.

But in the meantime, urban settlements in developing countries are at risk from overcrowding and environmental degradation. The UN Environment Program on Thursday issued a report outlining ways to identify and draw attention to emerging issues of environmental concern. The report devoted the first chapter to analyzing and solving problems brought by urbanization.

"The challenges can be the degradation of the environment and the depression of natural resources. Also, poverty can turn from rural poverty into urban poverty," Zhu said.

City planners and policymakers, he said, will have to come up with detailed strategies to better protect the environment and take care of vulnerable groups for a sustainable future.

Rising awareness of sustainability in China

China's seventh national census in 2020 showed that 63.89 percent of the total population live in urban areas.

While promoting urbanization in past decades, China also focused on developing nature-positive and carbon-neutral cities, aiming to ensure that they will be the future growth drivers.

Against such a backdrop, the real estate sector faces carbon reduction pressure. Energy consumption for heating, cooling and lighting buildings accounts for 28 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Catherine Xiong, executive director and head of project management at CBRE China, 

"In China, the existing building stock already exceeds 80 billion square meters. [But] less than 10 percent of them have received green certification," Xiong said.

She believes the rising awareness of green and low carbon concepts is helping the real estate sector to fast-forward in green buildings. "Major investors already are targeting either 2040 or 2050 as their deadline to achieve carbon neutrality," she said.

She also pointed out that due diligence inquiries for sustainability assessment are on the rise in the commercial real estate trading market in China. Now lengthy reports are compiled by consulting companies on carbon performance on whether target assets meet green requirements. 

A slew of certification systems has been devised internationally to help evaluate sustainability in the real estate sector. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the most widely used green building rating system.

"The U.S. Green Building Council wrote out LEED cities and LEED community certification in 2016. So as of today, there are already 205 certified projects globally. China has 28 projects certified under the categories of LEED cities and LEED communities, among which include Beijing Daxing International Airport and Universal Beijing Resort," Xiong said.