Title: How climate migration will accelerate the need for Free Global Cities

Author: Dr. Parag Khanna

Abstract

We are in the early phases of an epochal shift in the organization of global civilization driven by global megatrends such as urbanization and climate change. These forces call for nothing less than a global strategy to reprogram the geography of civilization towards sustainable urban habitats in climate-resilient locations. Executing on this new vision requires reconciling our terribly misaligned natural, political, functional and human geographies. As the world population plateaus and eventually declines while climate volatility accelerates, the global cities that have anchored the world economy in decades past will gradually be supplemented or displaced by a new archipelago of networked civilizational centers. This chapter identifies a number of these future hubs across most regions of the world and highlights the attributes that may make them successful destinations for climate migrants such as their infrastructure quality, open and tolerant culture, and other attributes. We should exercise our powers of foresight today to anticipate the optimal locations for these sustainable habitats that will be the essential home for the more mobile world population of tomorrow.

Key words

Demographics; Migration; Climate; Cities; Geography; Free Global Cities; Free Global City