What will your city look like in 2050?

2050
London April 2011
2050 in year one will ask artists from London, New York, Moscow, and Beijing
to show us what their city looks like in 2050. In year two a curated residency will bring together artists and practitioners from business, activism,
and science to work across disciplines on climate and cities. In the third year 2050 will run a creative initiative generated from the residency.

2050 is not limited to architecture, engineering, or activism. We’re looking for projects that venture beyond problem-solving or education

and into the territory of imagination and the senses. Make us wonder. Disturb us. Imagine the sound the London Eye makes as it smashes into the
rapidly rising Thames. Imagine the deserts of New Mexico as massive solar power capture zones. Artists can help make climate change not just a
series of hard facts but an experience felt and understood.

2050 is a partner with Carbon Disclosure Project’s new program, “CDP Cities”, the world's first standardized global framework for the

disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change risk from cities. CDP will launch the Cities Programme with the Clinton Climate
Initiative and C40, a group of the world's largest cities committed to tackling climate change.
The Carbon Disclosure Project launched in 2000 to collect and distribute high quality information that motivates investors,
corporations and governments to take action to prevent dangerous climate change.

2,500 organizations in some 60 countries around the world now measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change
strategies through CDP, in order that they can set reduction targets and make performance improvements. This data is made available for use
by a wide audience including institutional investors, corporations, policymakers and their advisors, public sector organizations, government
bodies, academics and the public.

CDP operates the only global climate change reporting system. Climate change is not a problem that exists within national boundaries. That is
why CDP harmonizes climate change data from organizations around the world and develop international carbon reporting standards.

CDP acts on behalf of 534 institutional investors, holding $64 trillion in assets under management and some 60 purchasing organizations such
as Cadbury, PepsiCo and Walmart.
CDP Cities
From 2010, CDP will provide a standard
disclosure platform for global cities, in
addition to the world’s corporations.
Request will cover greenhouse gas
emissions, risks, and opportunities from
climate change, and governance
Focus on physical risks to cities and
adaptation planning
Participation from the 40 largest cities in
the world, as well as many smaller cities in
future years.
Why cities?
According to the United Nations, “50% of people on Earth are now living in
cities.” This number is predicted to grow to 75% in 2050. While already “75%
of carbon emissions come from cities”.
The effects of climate change will be keenly felt in cities. Many of the world's major
cities are at risk of flooding from rising sea levels. Heat-trapping urban landscapes
(buildings and paved surfaces) can raise temperatures – and lower air quality --
dangerously through the Urban Heat Island effect. In cities of the developing world,
one out of every three people lives in a slum, making them particularly vulnerable to
the health and environmental risks posed by climate change.
The good news is that cities are uniquely equipped to deal with the challenges they
face. As centers of cultural, political, and economic leadership, cities can act on climate
change, implementing bold steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that others may
follow.
-From www.c40cities.org
New York
“The City of New
York joins the
world’s leading
corporations in
providing a
complete, accurate
accounting of its
carbon emissions
and the strategies it
is employing to
mitigate those
emissions, and the
results of its efforts
through the Carbon
Disclosure Project.

The partnership
between the world’s
major corporations
and, increasingly, its
cities, highlights the
importance of the
cooperative action
needed to
successfully counter
climate change.”

Michael Bloomberg
Mayor of the City of
New York
Timeline
Preparation
March - August
Research partners and artists.
Fundraise. Develop media
strategy.

Commission Artists
August - October
Continue fundraising. Begin
marketing. Commission artists.

Marketing
October - March
Manage relationships between
partners, artists, and venue.
Ship artwork. Continue
marketing.

Installation &
Private View
April
The current slated venue is
London City Hall.
“Maybe only artists can grasp what that kind of future really
holds for us, it’s perhaps in the area of what we think of
today as science fiction, but that could be a very real future
for the planet.” John Podesta, Obama’s Transition Chief and President of the Center for
American Progress
 2050
“Help us imagine what the future holds ”
.

Contact

Natasha Rivett-Carnac
Independent Curator
E: natasha.rivettcarnac@gmail.com
M (London): +44 (0)7875923198
M (New York): +1 347 631-0188