WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:0 00:03.300 --> 00:05.860 Hello and, welcome to this conversation. 00:06.220 --> 00:08.020 We have here with us Jeff Merritt. 00:08.040 --> 00:09.220 It's my pleasure of course. 00:09.600 --> 00:14.520 Jeff Merritt is the head of IoT and Urban Transformation, and he's also a member of the 00:15.100 --> 00:18.000 Executive com-c-committee of the World Economic Forum. 00:19.260 --> 00:24.160 maybe I'll, I'll, I'll jump for the first, topic I would like us to discuss, and of 00:24.200 --> 00:25.640 course, the first topic is COVID. 00:27.280 --> 00:31.200 what other? the, the forum of course has suggested it may 00:31.280 --> 00:36.140 also shape differently the way we will, we will see our urban ecosystems in the future. 00:36.400 --> 00:37.680 What's, what's your view on this? 00:38.460 --> 00:44.000 You said all urban ecosystems- Yeah and environments and, and that's what's truly 00:44.100 --> 00:49.949 unique about this moment right now, is that we have gone through over the last year a shared 00:49.980 --> 00:55.480 experience where around the world, cities, regardless of what region they're in, what 00:55.580 --> 01:00.000 size they're in, have all had to go into essentially crisis mode. 01:00.080 --> 01:03.600 And, and that isn't necessarily the case for a lot of cities, right? 01:03.880 --> 01:09.380 When you're in crisis mode, you adapt and you change rapidly. 01:09.680 --> 01:13.900 And so those moments are really what propel innovation. 01:13.940 --> 01:18.440 They propel modernization and digitization within cities. 01:18.500 --> 01:22.360 Because in some ways you have no choice but to become data-driven. 01:22.500 --> 01:28.839 This is a breakthrough moment for cities because it was an equalizer in a way. 01:29.120 --> 01:34.320 It, it demonstrated for cities that you can't just sort of, 01:35.020 --> 01:39.260 coast along and, and hope that things will be okay. 01:39.600 --> 01:45.810 That we're living in a world where there is incredible uncertainty, unpredictability, and 01:45.860 --> 01:49.760 that means that cities have to be more agile. 01:49.840 --> 01:52.160 They have to be more responsive. 01:52.200 --> 01:53.800 They have to be data-driven. 01:54.140 --> 02:01.040 And if, if we can see that evolution of cities, it's gonna help for 02:01.100 --> 02:02.400 the next disaster. 02:02.580 --> 02:05.700 I, I see this as a great moment of potential growth. 02:06.020 --> 02:12.720 There is an opportunity, I think, for cities to embrace this moment, to not make 02:12.800 --> 02:18.880 incremental changes, but really think about, you know, the changes that they need to make 02:18.920 --> 02:22.720 to be able to thrive in the, the world that we're living in today. 02:23.200 --> 02:27.580 What would you say are the three main trends now shaping the, the future of our urban 02:27.640 --> 02:31.500 ecosystems, and what do you feel is the role of data, the role of technology, all these 02:31.540 --> 02:34.840 technology, technology developments that we have, we see every day? 02:35.260 --> 02:40.480 I think the pressing sort of challenges are we need to become much more resilient, 02:41.340 --> 02:47.690 that resiliency isn't something just for the big mega cities, that requires, 02:48.000 --> 02:53.180 for example, much more public-private cooperation, that you need to be able to have 02:53.200 --> 02:55.100 that flexibility on resources. 02:55.300 --> 03:00.480 Equity issues have been front and center, in, in the COVID pandemic. 03:00.540 --> 03:07.190 We see issues of, the income challenges or sort of the, the economic challenges 03:07.240 --> 03:10.420 impacting low income communities much more. 03:10.740 --> 03:16.640 again, a, a pressing issue that we can't just ignore, that we have to tackle, head on. 03:17.020 --> 03:22.820 And, and then also tech itself is a mega trend that's happening now. 03:22.900 --> 03:28.620 It's not just a sort of enabler- Yeah that, you know, it is something that is, is really 03:29.000 --> 03:34.740 coming into every element of our lives, into our homes, into our workplace, into our cities, 03:35.100 --> 03:40.180 and that we need to be thinking about tech not only as something that we can leverage, but 03:40.200 --> 03:41.580 something that we need to shape. 03:43.080 --> 03:47.980 you know, I'm sitting here on, on my, my hand is, you know, this is a, this is a smart ring 03:48.060 --> 03:51.860 that, um- Ah that captures, uh- Nice a lot of information about my health. 03:52.240 --> 03:57.380 I mean, we're working with, for example, Jersey City in the United States to, to look 03:57.440 --> 04:04.380 at how city authorities can work together with tech companies to, to leverage some of 04:04.420 --> 04:09.510 this information in an ethical, anonymized way to better predict outbreaks. 04:09.640 --> 04:14.600 So these are, these are trends that are both enormous opportunities, but also, challenges. 04:15.060 --> 04:21.220 What do you feel, the, the role of the forum should be, in order to improve the quality of 04:21.280 --> 04:25.840 our l- of our living and of course, in order to, to, to improve our sustainability topics? 04:26.760 --> 04:30.450 and, and also, what, what, what is the role that you want to give to the Center for the 04:30.560 --> 04:32.599 Four- Fourth Industrial Revolution on that? 04:33.980 --> 04:37.790 So the World Economic Forum's the international organization for public and 04:37.900 --> 04:43.640 private cooperation, and that is what we do best, and that is where I believe we have the 04:43.700 --> 04:45.580 greatest contribution to make to the world. 04:46.100 --> 04:51.050 Many of these challenges, if not all of these challenges that we're talking right now, are 04:51.100 --> 04:52.230 collective action issues. 04:52.250 --> 04:56.520 And, you know, look, we've been talking about public-private cooperation partnerships for 04:56.560 --> 04:58.200 decades, it seems. 04:58.860 --> 05:04.580 we're not making enough progress and we need to be able to define frameworks that are truly 05:04.660 --> 05:06.080 a win-win scenario. 05:06.170 --> 05:11.360 And to do that, you need to create a safe space where, you know, governments can come in 05:11.400 --> 05:16.210 and, and speak about really what their, their limitations are and their vulnerabilities are. 05:16.240 --> 05:19.160 And the private sector can talk about the same thing. 05:19.200 --> 05:21.360 So that's what the forum provides. 05:21.500 --> 05:27.570 We provide that space as a neutral entity to bring together these stakeholders and really 05:27.600 --> 05:31.440 hash out the details of how do we do successful collaborations. 05:31.490 --> 05:34.720 That we've built out a global network of centers. 05:35.600 --> 05:41.900 we now have, I think about 15 centers in Latin America and Africa and Europe and Asia. 05:42.740 --> 05:48.080 and, and what those provide is a network for coordination and collaboration. 05:48.180 --> 05:50.620 What we've been able to do is connect the dots there. 05:50.800 --> 05:53.200 we have more and more data in our urba- urban ecosystems. 05:54.080 --> 05:58.040 How do you see the relevance of these kind of technologies or platforms in order to make 05:58.080 --> 06:02.620 sure that we have, that we, that, that urban ecosystems deliver a better service to their 06:02.660 --> 06:07.380 citizens, and they also streamline their processes, they correlate the data between the 06:07.400 --> 06:08.469 several domains of the city? 06:09.000 --> 06:14.132 What's your thinking around that?Technology, believe it or not, is usually, is never the 06:14.172 --> 06:15.292 biggest challenge here. 06:15.552 --> 06:16.872 It's behavior change. Yeah. 06:16.972 --> 06:21.472 You know, and so, you know, y- we've had a lot of amazing platforms that are able to pull 06:21.482 --> 06:26.452 together, integrate data across, say, city departments, provide amazing dashboards, 06:26.512 --> 06:28.842 amazing opportunities for building efficiency. Mm-hmm. 06:29.112 --> 06:33.712 The challenge is getting cities to work across silos, meaning that, you know, we have baked 06:33.772 --> 06:39.782 into the DNA, very rigid structures where we have separate 06:40.292 --> 06:42.072 leadership, we have separate budgets. 06:42.772 --> 06:48.092 these become constraints for the type of collaboration that, that we need to see to 06:48.132 --> 06:50.352 sort of maximize the value of the platform. 06:50.392 --> 06:54.612 It's not enough to simply put a platform in place and hope that changes everything. 06:54.892 --> 06:58.092 We need to think about the governance structures that have to 06:58.152 --> 06:59.912 accommodate these platforms. 07:00.172 --> 07:06.792 We need to make sure we're beginning to change, behaviors to enable more collaboration among 07:06.812 --> 07:08.052 public servants. 07:08.132 --> 07:13.052 Well, what kind of recommendations you could give to local governments or to cities in 07:13.112 --> 07:16.652 order to be, I would say, cyber secure, or enough-ly cyber secure? 07:17.272 --> 07:21.312 You know, I think it's been an interesting evolution, you know, over, say, the last 07:21.372 --> 07:23.932 decade or two in terms of cybersecurity protections. 07:24.812 --> 07:30.912 initially cities very much felt that they needed to create a, a 07:30.922 --> 07:32.332 fortress, if you will. 07:32.392 --> 07:38.862 And then fast-forward a couple years and, and as the, the cloud service providers grew, 07:38.892 --> 07:43.432 cities started to realize, "Well, actually, if, if we actually use the cloud, we're gonna be 07:43.492 --> 07:48.352 more secure." So I think there's been a sort of a lightning moment there that, just because, 07:48.692 --> 07:53.442 you know, that the, the private sector's managing something, that doesn't mean that, 07:54.452 --> 07:55.572 that it's less secure. 07:56.312 --> 08:01.332 I think cities have made a, a lot of progress in terms of understanding the strengths and 08:01.352 --> 08:06.132 the expertise in the private sector and, and building strong partnerships. 08:06.352 --> 08:11.052 You know, on cybersecurity, we started with a very basic policy of 08:11.072 --> 08:12.622 understanding accountability. 08:13.132 --> 08:17.882 At the end of the day, who within city government is ultimately accountable? 08:19.011 --> 08:25.672 and if you don't answer that question, and if you don't have absolute, clarity there, then 08:25.712 --> 08:29.692 you're gonna have trouble. You need to have clarity of responsibility and 08:29.752 --> 08:36.092 that if you can do that, then, I believe you can build a framework and an approach to keep 08:36.132 --> 08:39.192 your city safe. I- in one side we want to feel secure. 08:39.572 --> 08:40.812 You, we have AI. 08:41.132 --> 08:46.172 Through AI we may have, face recognition, voice recognition, and so on. 08:46.312 --> 08:50.312 We, and we may use that in order for, for our protection in urban ecosystems. 08:50.692 --> 08:54.332 But on the other side, of course, we have the privacy issue. 08:54.692 --> 08:56.232 Where do you think is the right balance? 08:57.052 --> 09:01.132 So, you know, I think a lot of times we go in and we want the technology 09:01.212 --> 09:02.712 to, like, solve our problems. 09:02.792 --> 09:05.312 And then you have to remember that technology's a tool. 09:05.632 --> 09:08.152 You know, at the end of the day, the technology isn't good or bad, the question is 09:08.192 --> 09:10.952 how are we using it? I hear people talking about, "Okay, let's, 09:11.232 --> 09:17.171 let's use AI for policing." Because you Policing at the end of the day is about 09:17.232 --> 09:22.512 ensuring law and order, ensuring trust and respect among communities, and, and a 09:22.612 --> 09:23.792 collaboration with the government. 09:23.872 --> 09:29.641 And that is a relationship that happens between government and the people, and 09:29.752 --> 09:31.012 communities with each other. 09:31.692 --> 09:34.792 technology doesn't build relationships. 09:35.012 --> 09:36.952 It doesn't build trust. 09:37.212 --> 09:41.092 People do. If you have in place that strong collaboration 09:41.152 --> 09:48.052 between, your, your law enforcement and, and communities, and there's a relationship 09:48.112 --> 09:52.372 of, of trust there, then you can layer upon that. 09:52.462 --> 09:57.902 And this is the key point, once you have the, the trusted relationship, you can add on a lot 09:57.932 --> 10:03.672 of amazing tools that create greater efficiency and enable government 10:03.682 --> 10:05.552 to be more responsive. 10:05.632 --> 10:09.672 You know, one of the, the tools that we rolled out when I was in New York that I was a big 10:09.712 --> 10:14.272 fan of, for example, was, gunshot detection. 10:14.532 --> 10:18.572 Because there's a lot of distrust in communities between the police, and then what 10:18.612 --> 10:23.832 we've seen again and again is in traditionally marginalized low-income communities, that 10:23.852 --> 10:25.932 they're less likely to call for help. 10:26.352 --> 10:31.252 And so whenever you're able to insert, say, technology like gunshot detection, and you're 10:31.312 --> 10:37.532 able to pinpoint with an amazing precision where that gunshot came from, and you're then 10:37.652 --> 10:43.192 able to empower the, your police officers and law enforcements to respond 10:43.232 --> 10:44.382 and help the community. 10:44.812 --> 10:49.852 And so there's, there's a real important sort of piece here about how do we enable our law 10:49.872 --> 10:51.622 enforcement to do their job better? 10:52.032 --> 10:55.552 Technology's not a substitute, it's a supplement. 10:55.892 --> 10:59.312 Yeah. Let's mo- mo- move to another topic. 10:59.752 --> 11:03.392 How do you think the future of our mo- mobility will look like? 11:03.612 --> 11:08.152 Is I'd like to see people not needing to travel as much as they have in the past. 11:08.192 --> 11:14.752 But it took a pandemic for us to, to dive in, if you will, and, and realize that actually we 11:14.792 --> 11:21.452 can have productive dialogues, that we can do meetings across the world, that we 11:21.492 --> 11:25.412 can connect with our, you know, our medical professionals from our home. 11:25.892 --> 11:32.012 It's not about, you know, just swapping out your, your, you know, gas, 11:32.492 --> 11:34.412 vehicles with your electric vehicles. 11:34.452 --> 11:36.212 That doesn't solve our problems. 11:36.252 --> 11:40.642 That's reacting to a problem, which is that we've got too many people who are on the road 11:40.912 --> 11:42.351 who probably don't need to be. 11:42.412 --> 11:47.872 And so I, I'm, I get really excited when I see, you know, the, the efforts like in Paris 11:47.932 --> 11:52.872 around a, a 15-min- minute city and really building stronger neighborhoods, thinking 11:53.612 --> 11:59.152 about how do we have, communities that are multi-use that, you know, 11:59.212 --> 12:05.152 involve residential, retail, commercial areas, that builds for 12:05.232 --> 12:06.792 stronger communities. Yeah. 12:07.172 --> 12:13.032 I'd like to see ultimately less transportation, and then that ultimately opens up a lot 12:13.132 --> 12:14.732 more-Options, right? 12:14.952 --> 12:21.132 If you don't have to travel great distances- then you can decide, do I want to walk? 12:21.212 --> 12:22.262 Do I want to bicycle? Right. 12:22.272 --> 12:23.862 Do I wanna use an electric scooter? 12:24.142 --> 12:28.122 Do I wanna use a, a shared ride service, right? 12:28.152 --> 12:34.332 There's so many options when you decrease that, that amount of travel and the length of travel, 12:34.692 --> 12:39.042 and that, you know, we're already seeing in places like Helsinki where, you know, they've 12:39.072 --> 12:41.752 rolled out integrated systems. 12:41.992 --> 12:43.072 I think that's the future. 12:43.812 --> 12:48.032 it's lots of options and hopefully less, less travel every day. 12:48.332 --> 12:54.352 We asked 2,000 C- CXOs what, what is the top, concern that they have for the future and they 12:54.432 --> 12:55.612 all said the sustainability. 12:55.732 --> 12:59.592 We see the, the forum is also working on the net zero carbon cities. 13:00.052 --> 13:03.452 we have other, other initiatives also for the European Commission. 13:05.172 --> 13:07.252 d- do you see this really getting to the ground? 13:08.392 --> 13:10.761 It's an enormous, enormous challenge. Yeah. 13:10.812 --> 13:14.172 I think that we have a lot of optimism and excitement right now. 13:14.252 --> 13:18.332 I'm not sure that folks have really come to terms with how difficult this is. 13:18.552 --> 13:23.252 Siloed behaviors and activities are definitely front and center when we talk about, you know, 13:23.312 --> 13:24.812 the, the challenges here. 13:24.982 --> 13:28.332 We're thinking about alternative energy, but we're thinking about all of these separately 13:28.392 --> 13:33.782 and, and the key here is to actually have a holistic integrated strategy because that's 13:33.812 --> 13:35.312 where you get efficiencies. 13:35.342 --> 13:41.012 And we also need to have a lot stronger public coop- private cooperation here, that I think 13:41.052 --> 13:44.792 too much of this burden is being put on, government. 13:45.212 --> 13:51.272 Buildings at the end of the day, account for something like 40% of, of 13:51.292 --> 13:52.512 greenhouse gas emissions. 13:52.672 --> 13:56.292 Most of us know that the, the construction and real estate industry has been one of the 13:56.432 --> 13:58.012 slowest to sort of modernize. 13:58.092 --> 14:00.132 The value chain is incredibly complicated. 14:00.672 --> 14:07.072 So, in order to meet the, the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit, global warming, 14:07.612 --> 14:13.232 we need to see in the next, say, 10 or so years, the majority of our buildings become, 14:14.212 --> 14:15.732 net zero carbon. 14:16.052 --> 14:19.012 Any guess on, on how many cities currently meet that goal? 14:19.692 --> 14:21.252 No. Less than 1%. 14:21.832 --> 14:25.712 Yeah. I mean, the, this is a staggering- Yeah 14:25.752 --> 14:26.872 challenge here. 14:27.292 --> 14:31.752 To retrofit all of this legacy stock is massive, so we need to really 14:31.792 --> 14:33.052 get down to the details. 14:33.172 --> 14:40.012 We need to be thinking about how to adequately incentivize, the key stakeholders that 14:40.132 --> 14:44.092 are, you know, the, the property managers, the owners. 14:44.792 --> 14:46.872 government has a role to play in that. 14:47.172 --> 14:51.312 The, the finance community has a role to play in that, the construction 14:51.332 --> 14:53.712 and real estate community. It's not gonna happen unless we have a very 14:53.852 --> 14:57.372 clear action plan- Yeah and very clear responsibility and accountability. 14:57.412 --> 14:58.892 Oh, yeah. We're aligned where we wanna go. 14:58.932 --> 15:00.912 Now we have to align on how we're gonna get there. Yeah. Yeah. 15:01.272 --> 15:04.952 We are in the middle of a crisis where urban ecosystems don't have that much money. 15:05.332 --> 15:06.392 They have budget leakages. 15:07.112 --> 15:10.312 What, what is your view on the way to fund all of this? 15:10.872 --> 15:12.812 I, I probably sound like a broken record. 15:12.892 --> 15:16.932 The answer is, is, is obviously public-private cooperation. Yeah. 15:17.752 --> 15:23.152 we really need to put aside a lot of our assumptions about what we think the role of 15:23.192 --> 15:26.272 government is, what we think the role of the private sector is. 15:27.132 --> 15:33.672 because we go in so many times to these discussions with an idea that, like, 15:33.892 --> 15:39.232 government should be leading, and then that private sector should be supporting, and I, I 15:39.312 --> 15:45.472 really think that for a lot of these, these challenges that we need to go in with a blank 15:45.672 --> 15:50.752 slate and we need to say, "Okay, here's where we want to go in the future," right? 15:50.972 --> 15:54.291 Let's focus on sort of the goals that we wanna achieve. 15:55.232 --> 16:01.812 let's be realistic about where we stand right now and what that gap is, and think about 16:01.892 --> 16:08.092 who's better positioned, between the public sector and the private sector to both lead, to 16:08.112 --> 16:09.432 both sort of finance that. 16:09.782 --> 16:11.742 And I'm not saying outsource all of things. 16:11.792 --> 16:17.072 I'm not suggesting that, that all of the sudden the private sector is running our lives. 16:18.132 --> 16:23.232 it- it's that government can, can put in place the, the governance structure. 16:23.272 --> 16:26.282 It, that doesn't mean they have to be the ones that are delivering all 16:26.312 --> 16:27.792 the services themselves. 16:27.982 --> 16:32.652 The burden doesn't have to, shouldn't fall always on the, the private sector to solve all 16:32.692 --> 16:35.372 of our problems. Before I pose you the last question, is there 16:35.432 --> 16:38.672 something else you would like to share or to, or to say? 16:38.912 --> 16:45.382 When we look at our, the way in which we do long-term strategic planning in 16:45.492 --> 16:48.892 cities, it is very outdated. 16:49.612 --> 16:54.912 It reflects an era where there was predictability in the future. 16:55.172 --> 16:57.552 Well, that's not how the world works today. 16:58.352 --> 16:59.892 the world is unpredictable. 17:00.092 --> 17:02.772 The pace of change is exponential. 17:03.332 --> 17:10.152 And so we really need to envision and create a new approach, 17:10.212 --> 17:15.552 a new methodology for how we do strategic planning that is more agile. Yeah. 17:15.692 --> 17:21.242 You look at the companies that are thriving today in the world, you know, the Googles and 17:21.272 --> 17:23.152 the Amazons and others of the world. 17:23.192 --> 17:28.132 Do you think they're planning out 10 years in advance what their investments are gonna be in 17:28.192 --> 17:30.092 doing an incremental growth? No. 17:30.412 --> 17:34.672 They've set up their planning processes in a way that they can be agile. 17:34.932 --> 17:40.192 We need to enable a simil- similar sort of agile process. 17:40.252 --> 17:42.172 We're able to make adjustments more rapidly. 17:42.352 --> 17:46.672 How would it look like the, your dream place to live in 2030? 17:47.492 --> 17:49.972 I want stronger communities. 17:50.632 --> 17:55.802 that's not a given. you have to really think, strong communities 17:55.832 --> 17:57.091 are diverse communities. 17:57.402 --> 17:59.712 They're, they're safe communities. 17:59.872 --> 18:01.732 They're communities where there's trust. 18:03.552 --> 18:10.052 and so what I'd like to see is that we're able to take advantage of the 18:10.112 --> 18:13.792 moment now, which I think is a bit of a wake-up call. 18:14.072 --> 18:20.952 We need to sort of understand that inclusion and equity is not a good to have. 18:21.292 --> 18:22.572 It's essential. 18:22.852 --> 18:25.352 It's a foundation that we build upon. 18:26.392 --> 18:33.272 and, and then if we do those things, the cities that in 2030 are thriving 18:33.452 --> 18:38.872 communities, and a thriving community is, is good for the economy. 18:39.252 --> 18:44.612 A thriving community, is good for cu- culture and good for art. 18:44.672 --> 18:47.502 It's good for creativity, and it's good for innovation. 18:48.412 --> 18:52.852 and a thrive- a, those type of communities will be more resilient. 18:52.912 --> 18:54.392 They'll be more sustainable. 18:55.232 --> 18:57.592 and so it's not, we're not giving anything up. 18:57.952 --> 19:01.912 We're making our communities stronger even as the world modernizes and 19:01.952 --> 19:03.912 becomes more futuristic. 19:05.132 --> 19:07.992 Thank you, Jeff. It was a pleasure to have this conversation 19:08.032 --> 19:11.512 with you. I think, I think it was super insightful, and 19:11.592 --> 19:12.912 thank you for your time. 19:13.732 --> 19:14.432 Of course. Thank you.