I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Today, a vision to use data and digital tools together in the fight against climate change. In his talk from TED at BCG in 2021, the data cooperation expert Massimo Russo challenges public and private entities to cooperate through data.

So sustainability solutions can come about faster and more effectively.

If you've gone to a tech conference, literally any tech conference in the last five years,

you would walk away with the impression that the

connected, easy to navigate, clean and green smart city is just around the corner.

The reality is that, and the hype is that many companies are working on products and solutions

to get there. Take transportation, for example.

Allegedly, in the city of the future,

you will be able to seamlessly plan your journey

from public transportation to shared autonomous taxis

and even electric scooters.

If you own a car, it will be electric.

And there will be charging stations strategically placed throughout the city.

So all you do is type your location into your GPS, and it will automatically take you to your

location in the minimum amount of time, and any payment you need for charging will be done

automatically in the background. Now, you might say, wait a minute, there are companies that are

doing this today. I can do this today. But it's individual companies, and it's certainly not ubiquitous across the city.

But it doesn't just stop with transportation. Let's take health. In the future, there will be air

quality monitors at every street corner, and they will be connected with your asthma inhaler so that

you know when it's safe to go out.

Or there will be infrared cameras that are measuring the temperature of citizens anonymously,

and that will be connected with your thermometer so that we can detect future outbreaks.

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