1818 Society Urban and Water Talk Shop series
Speaker: Ming Zhang
Speaker’s Bio: Ming Zhang, a Chinese National, is the Global Director for the Urban, Resilience and Land Global Department at the World Bank. In this position, he leads the Bank’s global efforts on sustainable urban development, disaster risk management, and land. He is responsible for spearheading global knowledge programs, fostering innovative thought leadership, and ensuring client impact and global partnership in these sectors which together represent around $36 billion of the Bank’s investment portfolio. Mr. Zhang joined the World Bank in 1997. Prior to his current position, he served as the Practice Manager for Urban, Resilience and Land in three different regions (South Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, and East Asia and Pacific) where he oversaw the formulation and implementation of knowledge and financing programs. His earlier career positions at the World Bank included roles as team lead on urban development, infrastructure, and local government. Mr. Zhang holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning and an MA in Economics, both from the University of California in Berkeley, USA. He also holds a BA in Geography from East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.
Synopsis: Today, nearly 60% of the world’s population lives in cities—a share that will rise to almost 70% by 2050. Cities are also a key driver of national growth and development, accounting for more than 80% of global GDP and almost 90% of private sector job creation. However, cities are also a key source and target of the climate crisis, generating 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. The concentration of people, infrastructure and economic activity in cities also makes them particularly vulnerable to climate change and other natural hazards. Global average annual losses in the built environment from earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, flooding and other disasters were estimated at about $314 billion in 2015 and are expected to increase to $415 billion by 2030. How urbanization is managed will therefore have long-lasting, irreversible impacts on the planet.
Building more livable cities requires massive investment. Cities around the world, but particularly in developing countries, are in urgent need of much greater volumes of financing to invest in infrastructure and services to support economic growth, deliver services to urban residents and combat climate change. This requires a combination of enabling government policies, municipal capacity, and city-level action to strengthen revenue administration and spatial planning capacity. This session will present a comprehensive and integrated approach for how the World Bank Urban, Resilience and Land Global Department is addressing these inter-related challenges.
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