According to CBC News, Abu Dhabi has just unveiled a plan for a car-less, zero-carbon, zero-waste city in the desert.

A model of Masdar City was formally unveiled at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday. The city, designed by British architect Norman Foster, is designed to house 1,500 businesses and 50,000 people…Masdar City’s electricity will be generated by solar panels, with solar power driving the city’s cooling systems and a desalination plant needed to produce fresh water. The city’s layout will also create micro-climates, or zones of different temperatures, to encourage air circulation. Masdar City has also been designed to be car-free, with public transportation — through a light railway and personalized rapid transport pods — never more than 200 metres away, according to architecture firm Foster + Partners.

Let’s put this in the ‘we’ll believe it when we see it’ file for now. Not that a carbon-neutral city is a newfangled idea…