At the time of writing, construction has begun on Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates. Masdar City is planned to be the world’s first carbon neutral and zero waste city. The city is being built from scratch with the aim of accommodating 50,000 permanent residents and 40,000 commuters. The project is an extremely bold move with many companies and research organizations involved and a budget reaching US$22 Billion. The city will use cutting edge technology to harness energy from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydrogen sources. There will also be a big focus on reusing wastewater. The result of all this technology means that landfills will be a thing of the past and the city’s contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide will effectively be zero.
