Participants attend the BRICS Urban Future Forum, which was held in Moscow, Russia on September 18–19, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of the forum organizers

The forum “Cloud Cities. BRICS Urban Future Forum” concluded in Moscow, Russia on September 19, during which experts discussed the prospects for sustainable development of megacities in BRICS member states. 

The honorary Chairman of the Forum was traditionally the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rae Kwon Chung. During the event, he often noted Moscow’s achievements in solving environmental problems.

American economist Jeffrey Sachs, during his speech at the Forum, noted that more than half of the world’s megacities will soon be concentrated in the BRICS countries, and the participants of the association are achieving high results in their cooperation.

“There is cooperation between the BRICS countries. BRICS is a group that really works together. This is very cool. But I would like to see such interaction also between the US and Russia, between the US and China. So that it would not be two opposing camps that divide the world even more but there would be cooperation. But it is definitely not there,” Sachs said.

The BRICS Urban Future Forum was held in Moscow, Russia on September 18–19, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of the forum organizers

“There is cooperation between the BRICS countries. BRICS is a group that really works together. This is very cool. But I would like to see such interaction also between the US and Russia, between the US and China. So that it would not be two opposing camps that divide the world even more but there would be cooperation. But it is definitely not there,” Sachs said.

During the Forum, experts and participants shared their experiences in developing innovations, introducing artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality technologies into urban solutions, technologies for smart cities and successes in creating cloud services. 

Threats from high rates of urbanization and technological development were also considered at the forum. Daron Ajemoglu, an economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressed concerns about the integration of AI into the life of megacities.

“It has been proven that decision-making tools using AI do not make this process more efficient. AI models often do not have enough information and make mistakes, but even if they have high-quality data, such technologies demotivate people, undermine their desire to engage in creativity,” Ajemoglu said.

In addition to discussing prospects and threats, the forum celebrated megacities and city leaders for their contribution to sustainable development and solving environmental problems. The World Innovation Award ceremony was held. The award highlights the importance and priority of technological developments in achieving sustainable development. Experts recognized Moscow as the best in the nomination Sustainable Cities and Communities for its contribution to the introduction of advanced sustainable technologies on land, water and in the air. The award was brought to the capital by three projects at once, including the Pixel cleaning robot, as well as the Moscow municipal fleet and the capital's eco-monitoring laboratories.

The Forum also announced the top 5 cities of the BRICS countries in the framework of the Index of Technological and Spatial Development (Urban & Innovation Environment Index). The index is compiled by a consortium of research organizations from China, India and Russia to evaluate cities based on their ability to provide citizens with comfortable access to a variety of physical and digital services.

Moscow took the first place in the rating, retaining the position of last year. Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Beijing and Guangzhou also became leaders. 

International experts hailed the balanced spatial development of Moscow, the high availability of various urban services for residents, the introduction of new technologies in various fields, the consistently high pace of development of transport infrastructure and provision of public transport, as well as efforts to preserve the environment in the metropolis, as well as ensuring comfortable accessibility of green areas. According to a number of indicators, Moscow has improved its position compared to last year, thereby consolidating its leadership position. 

The results of the BRICS-250 Index, compiled by the international analytical publication World Economic Journal (Hong Kong, China), were also presented in Moscow. The capital of Russia took the third place in the list of BRICS business capitals, Beijing became the leader of the rating, Abu Dhabi took the next place. The rating of the association's technology companies in terms of the potential for creating new technologies, innovation and sustainability of development, and their strategic orientation (primarily expressed in ESG and CSR strategies) includes the following Russian companies: Sber, Yandex, Rostelecom, VTB, Vkontakte, MOEX, Rosneft, X5 Group among other companies. 

The results of the global cities innovation attractiveness rating (HSE Global Cities Innovation Index 2024) were also presented at the forum. Experts from the Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow analyzed the competitive advantages of cities in terms of their attractiveness to leaders of science, high-tech and creative industries. Moscow entered the top 10 of the rating, receiving high marks in the categories Technological Development, Creative Industries and Urban Environment. Also, in the top 10 are: London, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, San Francisco, Paris, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Seoul.