At the opening ceremony of BRICS Urban Agenda Forum:

Expanding cooperation between BRICS cities requires identifying the challenges/BRICS cities should cooperate to improve the quality of life in cities

The Chairman of Islamic City Council of Tehran expressing Tehrans urban capacities and challenges and the need to recognize urban challenges asked BRICS member to cooperate to improve the quality of life in BRICS cities.

According to Islamic City Council of Tehran, Mehdi Chamran, the Chairman of the Tehran City Council, in the opening ceremony of "BRICS Urban Climate Agenda in the Current Conditions" forum in Moscow which was held with the presence of representatives of the member cities emphasized on recognizing their challenges and stated that In order to boost cooperation among the BRICS cities, the first step is to identify their challenges and then work to find a solution.

In continue he said that Tehran is a metropolis with a daytime population of more than 13 million citizens, which enjoys a moderate climate thanks to its location on lower slopes of Alborz Mountains. Tehran used to be garden-city in old days, however, has evolved into a city, or better say megacity, with its unique beauties and of course shortcomings.

Today’s Tehran is no longer a city of beautiful gardens and its citizens usually suffer from lack of clean air, particularly intensified in cold season due to inversion. The number of clean days in Tehran barely reaches 30 in a year.The air pollution, caused by life-threatening microparticles under 2 micron, is worsened by dust and sand storms from desserts inside and outside Iran, particularly the neighboring Iraq and Syria, he emphasized. 

He mentioned that to address these challenges, first step is to increase the number and area of parks and gardens and prevent more destruction of orchards and trees. Tehran has acted successfully in rising the number of parks from 75 to 2506 in the past 45 years. However, it needs more and this has not been sufficient. The green space per capita has also reached 17 square meters from 1 square meter, which is based on the comprehensive plan of development. However, its expansion has remained unbalanced.

To improve the air quality, Tehran has carried out extensive forestation in city outskirts despite lack of water. In the past two years, an overall area of 1,450,000 square meters have been forested and until early march 2025, another 2 squares meters are expected to be planted using modern irrigation systems to reduce water use.Next step is to reduce air pollution, re-setting the balance between using private vehicles and public transportation, which currently stands at 75 percent to 25 percent. This needs to get reversed, he said.

Stating that there is a need for rapid development of Tehran Metro to reach 20 percent from 8 percent and the development of bus fleet has to rise from 15 percent to 25 percent, he added that Tehran has also made effort to electrify its bus fleet by both home-made and Chinese vehicles. 2,000 Chinese electric buses are expected to be delivered to Tehran by early March 2025. The increase in using public transpiration, besides reducing air pollution, will contribute reduce traffic and congestion. Before Covid-19 pandemic, Tehran Metro reached a record of transferring 2,300 million passengers a day. Today this number can be doubled by expansion of metro lines and increasing wagons. Electric cars, private or public, are advised by experts to help reduce the air pollution and that’s why Tehran is making efforts to replace the old ones with e-vehicles.  

He continued: it has been two decades since establishing any factory up to a radius of 120 kilometers around Tehran has been banned, although the old ones are still operating.Today in Iran a total of 110 million liters petrol is consumed daily, with Tehran’s share amounting to 15 million liters. Burning this amount of fossil fuels obviously leads to increase in emission and air pollution.

He also mentioned that: this summer, electricity consumption in Tehran reached 6000 megawatt in hot days of 40 Celsius,  recoding an increase by 12 percent. Cooling systems in Tehran consume as much electricity as the whole city of Cairo. Electricity consumption increases by 100 megawatts per degree of temperature.  But, despite all these problems and a sizzling summer, Tehran didn’t face any major challenges in providing the electricity and there were no major black-outs like many metropolises.

These measures and steps will hopefully help to improve the environmental conditions in Tehran, he stated.

He added that urban waste is another challenge for Tehran, which can be addressed by comprehensive plans and establishing modern and environmental waste-burning plants. Tehran produces 6,000 tons of waste on a daily basis, which makes its collection and disposal a critical issue. This process is particularly a difficult one in timeworn neighborhoods, where streets and alleys are too narrow for waste-collecting machinery.

He also mentioned that another environmental issue is the overusing of underground water resources that has resulted in their decrease and land subsidence. Tehran need to take special measures in this regard.

He emphasized that the lack of wind or natural air movement is another environmental challenge we face in Tehran. This is caused by the city being surrounded with high mountains, particularly in its north, which prevent air streams and also rain clouds from reaching the city.

In the end, he stated that all these are the challenges Tehran is dealing with. Sure, there have been numerous measures and actions taken as way-outs, but not sufficient and efficient to this day. However, Tehran has spectacular beauties and attractions and I invite you all to visit this great city. You will absolutely enjoy your visit. I hope that all BRICS cities take their environmental issues into consideration and improve the condition by precise and proper planning.