World Urban Forum III Seeks New Solutions to City Problems

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, June 20, 2006 (ENS) - "The sustainable city is now within sight," declared Anna Tibaijuka, head of UN Habitat, speaking Monday to delegates at the opening of World Urban Forum III. "We have the global statement of political priorities by world leaders, a set of measurable targets, a global plan of action, policy guidelines and recommendations, and an increasingly engaged civil society. Why, then, are our cities – in both the developed and developing world – becoming less and less sustainable?" she asked.

Tibaijuka peppered the audience of thousands, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with questions. "Why are urban slums, which now contain over one billion people and their myriad of problems, still growing at a rate that outpaces all our attempts to deal with them? Why is urban sprawl and our gross consumption of energy becoming more worrisome? Why have the leaders of nearly all member states not acted fully on their commitments? she demanded.

Anna Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian national, is executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, or UN Habitat. (Photo courtesy UN Habitat)

Tibaijuka hopes they will contribute new ideas to help solve some of these pressing urban problems.

"The sub-theme of this Third World Urban Forum, 'turning ideas into action' identifies the precise point where we are most in need of new ideas," she said. "I trust the agenda of this forum has been designed to encourage the exploration of meta-ideas – ideas on the implementation of yet new ideas."

New ideas from urban policy and urban finance, from investment priorities, from tenure reform and from participatory decision-making, can help update the political landscape, she said, "by planting the city – as the essential community of communities – squarely in the mainstream of national and international politics."

In his address to the delegates Monday, Prime Minister Harper called urbanization "a powerful, irresistible phenomenon."

Harper praised Canada's cities, saying they are "already deemed to be among the cleanest and greenest in the world."

"We all know that cities must be environmentally sustainable," said Harper. "They need clean air, pure water and green space."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addresses the opening session of World Urban Forum III. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

To encourage Canadians to use their cars less often, Harper said, his government is providing generous tax credits for the users of public transit. "This will help ease traffic congestion and improve urban air quality." "We have also reached an agreement with the provinces to set a national target of five percent biofuel content in Canadian gasoline and diesel fuel by 2010," Harper said.

A hundred years ago, Canada was a predominantly rural nation of just over six million people. The population of Vancouver was less than 30,000.

Today, 80 percent of Canada's 33 million citizens live in urban centres. And the Greater Vancouver Regional District is Canada's third largest, with a population of 2.2 million.

Canada's third largest city, Vancouver is located in the southwesternmost corner of the country. (Photo credit unknown)

“The urban environment is inextricably intertwined with the rural one and inextricably linked with the way local, regional and global natural resources are soundly and sustainably managed," said Steiner. "So it is vital that we get cities right if we are to meet the internationally agreed development goals, if we are to deal with such pressing global issues as climate change.”

He said UN-Habitat and UNEP are key partners in the Sustainable Cities Program. This program is working with more than 100 cities worldwide to promote environmental planning and management under Agenda 21, the comprehensive sustainability action plan agreed by governments at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

Steiner said he looks forward to ever deeper cooperation with UN-Habitat, which is co-located with UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya, and with Tibaijuka.

As part of World Urban Forum III, UNEP, along with the UN-Habitat, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainable Development and the Cities Alliance, is showcasing a study of numerous cities from Cape Town, South Africa and Hyderabad, India to Honolulu in the United States.

The study underlines how many are proving that techniques for management of waste and efficient energy use make both economic and environmental sense locally and globally.

The Charminar in Hyderabad, India (Photo courtesy Husain)

The city is also turning the waste into “refuse derived fuel” which emits less greenhouse gases than traditional biomass like wood or agricultural wastes.

Honolulu has replaced traditional light bulbs in the city’s traffic lights with light-emitting diodes, saving over half a million dollars a year in reduced energy, maintenance and other costs.

Steiner said, “The rapid rate of urbanization, especially in developing countries, is a fact of life. But some cities are also demonstrating other facts – namely, that improving local air quality and curbing waste up to countering greenhouse gas emissions can go hand in hand with that urbanization and with that growth.”

“Around half the world’s population is already living in cities and the numbers are set to rise," said Steiner. "So the quest for sustainability will be increasingly won or lost in our urban areas."