Volume 16 No 1

Our PlanetThe magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme

GREEN CITIES

Luiz Inácio Lula da SilvaChallenges and Opportunity

Maria MutagambaBridging the Water Gap

Yuriko Koike The Spirit of “Mottai Nai”

Anna TibaijukaCities without Slums

Arnold SchwarzeneggerGlobal Effort

Ken LivingstoneCharging into the Future

Han ZhengRapid Progress

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The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP or the editors, nor are they an official record.

The designations employed and the presentation do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP

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Planet, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya.

Our Planet, the magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)PO Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTel: (254 20) 621 234

Fax: (254 20) 623 927e-mail: cpiinfo@unep.orgwww.unep.org

ISSN 1013-7394

Director of Publication: Eric FaltEditor: Geoffrey LeanCoordinators: Naomi Poulton, Elisabeth WaechterSpecial Contributor: Nick NuttallCirculation Manager: Manyahleshal KebedeDesign: Sharon Chemai

Production: UNEP/DCPI

Printed by Interprint, Malta

Front cover photograph: Joe McNally/Getty Images

22 Unlocking People EnergySomsook Boonyabancha, Director, Community Organisations Development Institute

24 Think LocalSheela Patel, Director, Society for Promotion of Area ResourceCentres, and David Satterthwaite

26 High AchievementsEnrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá

28 Life at the TopDusty Gedge, Livingroofs.org

30 Books and Products

31 Focus On Your World

32 Black Sea, Green City?Halyna Alomova - Ukraine

12 Cities without SlumsAnna Tibaijuka, Executive Director, UN-HABITAT

14 People

15 Rapid ProgressHan Zheng, Mayor of Shanghai

16 Greening CitiesTim Kasten, UNEP

18 Charging into the FutureKen Livingstone, Mayor of London

20 Star profile: Tokiko Kato

21 The Female FactorElisabeth Gateau, Secretary General, United Cities and Local Government

3 EditorialKlaus Toepfer, Executive Director, UNEP

4 Challenges and OpportunityLuiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, President of Brazil

6 BBrriiddggiinngg tthhee WWaatteerr GGaappMaria Mutagamba, Minister of State (Water) of Uganda and President ofthe African Ministerial Council on Water

8 Golden Gateway to Green Cities

10 The Spirit of “Mottai Nai”Yuriko Koike, Minister of theEnvironment, Japan

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Our Planetwww.ourplanet.com

This magazine is printed on 100 per cent recycled, chlorine free paper.

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Also available on the Internet atwww.ourplanet.com

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IIn the East Africa city of Dar esSalaam an innovative transportproject promises to cut congestion,

reduce air pollution and reclaim thestreets for pedestrians, cyclists andthe public. The Dar es Salaam BusRapid Transit system, or DART, is apartnership between the City Counciland a wide variety of companies andorganizations, including UNEP, withfunding from the Global EnvironmentFacility.

The blueprint for the scheme –which will combine modern, multi –door buses and fast boarding forpassengers with novel ticketingsystems, priority bus lanes and carrestrictions – is Bogotá. In the 1990sthe Colombian city was unloved by itscitizens. As an article in this WorldEnvironment Day edition of Our Planetoutlines, the car was king and thestreets and public places were chokingin traffic noise and fumes.

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But Bogotá is now reclaiming its senseof community and civic pride, largelythanks to its rapid transit system andother measures like restricting caruse, planting trees, establishing orredeveloping some 1,000 parks, andencouraging more human-friendlymodes of transport. It now boasts LatinAmerica’s biggest network of bicycleways, some 300 km of them, and theworld’s longest pedestrians-onlystreet, 17 km long.

I believe it is vital to flag up thesekinds of success stories. Theyunderline the importance ofpartnerships and are proof that evenseemingly monumental problems of

urban squalor, decline, and pollutioncan be overturned by communities andcity leaders with vision, creativity andenthusiasm.

Half the world now lives in citiesand two thirds of its population are setto be urban dwellers by 2030. We tendto focus on the huge problems ofcoping with the accompanying globalexplosion of unplanned, informal,settlements. Slums and sewers –rather than soaring spires andtantalizing social and professionalpossibilities – are all too often our solepreoccupation.

Of course we must tackle themisery, unhealthy living conditions andsub-standard services which blight toomany city dwellers in both developingand developed countries.

But urbanization, on its own, is farfrom being a bad thing. From finebuildings and leafy boulevards to cityparks and centres for the performingarts, cities can inspire and invigorate,and be sources of wonder, excitementand contemplation. They are also theengines of commerce and trade, andseats of government and power . It wasin San Francisco – this year’s host forWorld Environment Day – that theCharter of the United Nations wassigned 60 years ago.

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Cities are also melting pots of cultures,where social hierarchies are blurred,social mobility is always possible, anddiversity can thrive and be cherished.They are catalysts for new ideas andpolitical movements. Most of theworld’s great universities, libraries,theatres, art galleries, concert halls,

teaching hospitals and researchinstitutes are in urban settings.

Sadly, however, through incompe-tence, poor governance or a lack ofresources, too many cities are badlyrun and administered. In manydeveloping countries, the sheer rate ofurbanization has been overwhelmingfor all but the most stoic mayors andtown planners.

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Cities use enormous amounts ofnatural resources, while their wastes –from sewage to the gases that causeglobal warming – impact vast areas; bysome calculations London, whichphysically occupies 170,000 hectares,has an ecological footprint of 21 millionhectares – or 125 times its size. Butthey also could help deliver a moreenvironmentally stable and resourceefficient world.

As UNEP’s Global EnvironmentOutlook 3 puts it: “The relatively dis-proportionate urban environmentalfootprint is acceptable to a certainextent because, for some issues, theper capita environmental impact ofcities is smaller than would be made bya similar number of people in a ruralsetting. Cities concentrate people in away that reduces land pressure andprovides economies of scale andproximity of infrastructure andservices.”

Clearly, the battles to eradicatepoverty and deliver the MillenniumDevelopment Goals will be won or lostby whether we can manage the urbanenvironment effectively and creatively.If we can – as the examples of Dar esSalaam and Bogotá suggest – we willbe a long way down the road to trulysustainable development ■

YOUR VIEWSWe would like to receive yourfeedback on the issues raised in thisedition of Our Planet. Please eithere-mail: cpiinfo@unep.orgor write to:Feedback, Our PlanetDivision of Communications andPublic Information, UNEPP O Box 30552, NairobiKENYA

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From the desk of

KLAUSTOEPFERUnited NationsUnder-Secretary-General andExecutive Director,UNEP

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Challengesand OpportunityLUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA describes howsustainable development can protect theenvironment and generate jobs and incomefor the poor in urban and rural areas

Although Brazil is known worldwide for its great forest andwater resources, it has now become largely urbanized.Eighty-two per cent of its 183 million inhabitants live in

urban zones, mainly in metropolitan areas and cities with over100,000 people. This urban agglomeration results fromindustrialization and accelerated growth that took off in the 20thcentury and resulted in major income concentration and socialexclusion. The cities reproduced this economic model,concentrating large amounts of public resource into affluentareas while at the same time not providing adequateinfrastructure and living conditions for less prosperousneighborhoods.

Brazil does not offer housing to at least 6.6 million of its low-income population. Nearly 30 million people do not have accessto drinking water. Half the urban housing is not connected to asewerage system, and only 10 per cent of the sewage is treated.There is, therefore, a close link between social exclusion andenvironmental degradation. The poor are the major victims ofurban environmental problems. In view of the heightenedawareness of the emerging threat of environmentaldegradation, it is now understood that poor populations incoastal zones are especially vulnerable to the impact of globalwarming on ecosystems and sea level rise.

In the first two years of our Government, we set out to meetthe challenge of promoting economic growth with incomedistribution, achieving rapid industrial growth while at the sametime generating employment and improving workers' incomes.

However, it is time to take on board the wider meaning ofsustainability which covers not only economic and socialdimensions but environmental aspects as well. In Brazil,dealing with the so-called social deficit implies not only fightinghunger and poverty – a major focus of my Government and oneof the Millennium Development Goals. It also requires reducingsocial inequality through the “right to city”, which stands foradequate living conditions, sanitation, transport, and otherurban services. Improving the urban milieu will surely improveenvironmental conditions, especially as concerns waterresources.

This is a major challenge. The investments needed to makebasic sanitation universally available are estimated at US$ 2.5billion a year for the next twenty years. On-going negotiationswith the International Monetary Fund aim to reclassifyresources devoted to sanitation as investment for the purpose ofestimating the primary deficit in national accounts. Thisinitiative reflects our understanding that making full use ofthese resources is crucial to the country’s social andenvironmental development and to enhancing economicgrowth.

Yet sustainable development requires more. When I invitedSenator Marina Silva to become my Minister for theEnvironment we accepted the challenge of puttingenvironmental issues at the center of government policy. This isno simple task: it requires fostering economic growth withoutignoring social and environmental issues. Clearly one cannotdisassociate industrial and agricultural development policiesfrom questions of social inclusion and environmentalpreservation. These different dimensions form a whole,generating mutually reinforcing outcomes, results and impacts.

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Electricity provides a good example: increasing industrialproduction requires higher energy consumption. Brazil is widelyknown for its high level of renewable energy use: 85 per cent ofits installed capacity is hydroelectric in origin. Bringing onstream new units has social and environmental implicationsthat can and must be minimized. The Ministry for theEnvironment and the Ministry of Mines and Energy are jointlyimplementing new planning measures geared to reducingdamaging environmental effects and human displacement. Thisinvolves a strategically integrated approach to water basins andtheir multiple uses. Two other programs focus on reducingenergy wastage by rationalizing industrial productionprocesses, curtailing consumer demand and providingincentives for research into novel energy sources, such as solarand wind power.

The National Water Resources Plan – recently discussed atUNEP’s Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi – isrelevant here. Brazil has developed legislation concerningWater Resources Policy and set up the National Water Agency,which encourages the establishment of water basincommittees. These committees regulate conditions for wateruse, sanitation programs and basin recovery measures.

The crosscutting theme of environmental sustainability isalso relevant to Brazil's expanding agricultural frontier vis-à-visthe need to preserve our forests. Global concern with climate

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change underscores the inter-dependence between environmental anddevelopment issues, which involve allcountries, as well as urban and ruralareas and natural resources. As asignatory of and key actor in negotiatingthe Kyoto Protocol (although not includedin the annex I list of countries withreduction targets) Brazil believes publicpolicies should aim to reduce harmfulatmospheric emissions.

We are determined to combatburning and deforestation in the Amazon.Government initiatives covered in the“Sustainable Amazon Plan” includesustainable development for the areasurrounding the BR-163 highway and theIllegal Deforestation Prevention andControl Action Plan for the Amazon. As aresult of federal monitoring and control,deforestation indexes between 2002 and2003 have stabilized. Although presentlevels remain unsatisfactory, they dobear witness to the Government’sendeavors.

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The recent murder of Sister Dorothy inan Amazonian agricultural settlementhighlights the conflict between land-grabbing groups that settled along theagricultural frontier by burning downforestland where state control is weak,and local settlements that practice novelgovernment-sponsored forms ofsustainable occupation. This newapproach symbolizes a determination toput into practice policies protecting theenvironment and fostering sustainable

production. The assassination gaveadded impetus to ongoing initiativeswhich include the creation of an inter-ministerial taskforce to reinforce theDeforestation Combat Program. I hopeto make this task force permanent andthus reinforce the state’s presencethrough greater police action, landregulation and encouragement forsustainable production. Since 2003, 7million hectares – 23 per cent of allextant conservation areas – have comeunder protection in the Amazon region.

To return to climate change – andtherefore to global environmental issues– Brazil pioneered ethanol fuel (derivedfrom sugar-cane). This renewableenergy source replaces petroleum-derived fuels, thus reducing greenhousegas emissions. Many vehicles in Brazilrun exclusively on ethanol while theremainder run on a mixture that is 25per cent ethanol. Recently 'bi-fuel' carshave come on the market. Because theyrun on any combination of gas andethanol, an added impulse has beengiven to the country's ethanol industry.

Furthermore, we recently launchedthe National Biodiesel ProductionProgram, which adds two per cent of avegetable-derived diesel fuel to normaldiesel. This percentage is set to rise overthe coming years and thus foster theoutput of castor oil and palm oil bymostly low-income populations in theNorth and Northeast of Brazil. This will

be one more effort to link environmentalprotection to issues of development, jobcreation and better income for poorpeople.

I am convinced that these programsand technologies can be adopted both indeveloped countries, by substitutingthese new fuels for fossil fuelconsumption, and in poorer countries, byproducing these renewable fuelsthemselves and thus helping to betterdistribute income worldwide. This isBrazil’s contribution to bringing aboutchange in the global production andconsumption matrix.

Clearly, sustainable development isnot just a challenge, but rather anopportunity for the Brazilian governmentand society. It is challenging because itrequires profound change in the sociallyunfair economic growth models andpatterns of the past and present. It alsodemands a new awareness on the part ofgovernments, entrepreneurs and societyas a whole. It offers the opportunity todevelop wide-ranging initiatives as wellas novel technological patterns ofproduction and distribution. Finally,within a “democratic sustainability”approach, all stake-holders should beinvited to take an active interest in thesenew processes. Clean productionmethods, environmental educationtogether with increased local Agenda 21initiatives are essential to achievingthese goals and improving the livingconditions in our cities and our planet ■

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is President ofBrazil.

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Bridging the Water GapMARIA MUTAGAMBA describes how her country is meeting the

Millennium Development Goals in bringing water and sanitation to its

towns and cities

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UUganda may be predominantly rural,but it has a fast rate ofurbanization. Among the

consequences of this urban influx isgrowing demand for water and sanitationservices. The gap is continuouslywidening between this demand andsupplies in urban areas – where water,sanitation and hygiene are vitalcomponents of sustainable developmentand the alleviation of poverty.

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The water sector is one of theGovernment’s priority areas – essential,as it is, for poverty eradication and thewelfare of society. The Governmentpledged to increase access to safe andclean water and sanitation facilities bymobilizing resources for: constructingand rehabilitating facilities for domesticwater supply through piped waterschemes, boreholes, protected springs,and rainwater tanks; constructing damsand valley tanks; and promoting hygienicpractices. Driving forces in the watersector include the need: ■ to promote co-ordinated, integrated

and sustainable water resourcesmanagement to ensure conservation ofwater resources and provision of waterfor all social and economic activities;■ to promote the development of sus-tainable safe water supply and sanitationfacilities within easy reach of 80 per centof the urban population – rising to 100 percent by 2010 – based on managementresponsibility and ownership by theusers; and ■ to promote the development of watersupply for agricultural production tomodernize agriculture and to mitigate theeffects of climatic variations on rain-fedland.

The trend in urban safe watercoverage shows a progressive increaseover the years. Improved access to watersources within reasonable range ofpeople's homes has increased frombelow 10 per cent in 1986 to 65 per centtoday. Household sanitation servicecoverage is now estimated at 53 per cent.These initiatives are in line with achievingthe targets of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals.

The Ugandan Government has beenreforming the water and sanitation sector

over the past years. This is intimatelylinked to the Government’s povertyalleviation plans, and is financed largelyby debt relief funds. The Government hasled others and built a high level of trustand consensus with its sectordevelopment partners and with civilsociety organizations, through initiatingprogressive and innovative reforms.

This reform process aims at providingefficient and effective service delivery tourban areas. It has involvedcomprehensively assessing the waterand sanitation sector – including studyingthe rural and urban sub-sectors – andpreparing action and investment plans.Key strategies in implementing the urbaninitiatives that Government has identifiedinclude: decentralized delivery ofservices; increased public-privatepartnerships; and a sector-wideapproach to planning. The Government ofUganda recognizes that a deficiency inresources for implementing the deliveryof basic services is a critical constraint todevelopment.

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Great investments have been made, mostnotably within the last decade. They haveimproved coverage or service levels asextensively as expected in achieving thepresent level of 65 per cent of the urbanpopulation with access to safe watersupply or sanitation services.

Reform in the urban water supply andsanitation sub-sector began in the 1990sand introduced commercializedoperations based on increased privatesector participation. It is believed that

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public-private partnerships are key toefficiency, with the public sector retainingownership of the assets and privateoperators delivering the service. Thereforms were developed through anunprecedented participatory process,with strong links to the public servicereform process and to the Government’sprimary objective of poverty alleviation.

This process has been high quality,sustained and influential, bringing civilsociety organizations, external supportagencies and Government together, andleading to real partnerships and mutualunderstanding among sector stake-holders. It has also fostered thedevelopment of networks of policyadvocates, such as the Uganda Water andSanitation Network, and legitimized civilsociety’s role in monitoring the use ofwater sector funds. The reform processhas also raised the profile of the waterand sanitation sector, and increasedconfidence among its backers – resultingin a tripling of funding over the last fouryears.

Efforts have also been made tostrengthen the operational and financialstanding of the National Water andSewerage Corporation (NWSC)– whichserves 19 towns across the country – soas to reduce its commercial risks.Performance contracts between theNWSC and Government have improvedoperational standards and led to reducedstaffing, increased connection rates – and

a profit of over US$2 million in 2001. Thereforms also contained some pro-poorelements, such as reducing the fee forconnection to urban water supplies, andallocating new water supply connectionsto poor households. All these actionshave contributed to ensuring improvedprovision of services, especially to theurban poor.

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The challenges for the urban sub-sectorare many and call for all stakeholders tojoin hands, if Uganda is to achieve itsnational and international commitments.The major ones include the following: 1. Equity and equality issues in UgandanWater Sector Reform. Whileimplementing the urban reforms,concerns regarding perceivedexploitation by the private sector andcommercially-oriented companies takingover previously public-owned utilitiesmust be addressed. Above all, thereforms for efficient and effective servicedelivery must be established andsustained. 2. The necessity continuously to addressthe needs of the poor. A well-performingutility can deliver water servicesefficiently to its customers, but it mustalso be seen adequately to supply andmeet the needs of the poor, and thoseliving in informal, urban and peri-urbanareas for whom water is the single most

important priority. The real challenge,therefore, is to tailor the reforms toachieve exactly what is intended in thedefinition of strategies for the poor.3. Cost recovery. The need to ensure thesurvival of Government investmentsclearly requires sufficient generation ofinternal cash flow to meet expectedexpenditures. The issue of cost recoveryshould not be confused with the ability ofthe poor to meet the real cost of waterservices. A balance must be struckbetween the two so as to be able to adoptappropriate tariff structures andstrategies that will ensure the long-termsustainability of urban water sectorinvestments.4. Urban sanitation and hygiene. Sellingwater is relatively easy, even to the poor –but selling sanitation is much harder,despite the clear public health benefits.Much work therefore has to do be doneon sensitization and awarenesscampaigns to all citizens of the country.Resources are also needed, since thishas been a neglected area in the past.

Many and varied challenges thereforedefinitely remain – but we are continuingto move forward towards realizing theGovernment’s vision to ensure water forall cities ■

Hon. Maria Mutagamba is Minister ofState (Water) of Uganda and President ofthe African Ministerial Council on Water.

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California Governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger explains howprotecting the environment andeconomic growth can go hand in hand

UUnited Nations World Environment Day is one of themost important events on the internationalenvironmental calendar. California and San Francisco

are honored to be the first hosts in the United States for WorldEnvironment Day.

The environment is an essential part of the Californiaexperience. The state’s stunning beauty lies in its diversenatural wonders and resources. I am passionately committedto defending California’s environment, and providing realleadership to protect our precious land, air, and water.

Here in California, we have rejected the notion that wemust choose between protecting the environment, andprotecting jobs and economic growth. We know that if ourbeaches are soiled by oil spills, tourists will not experiencethe wonders of our magnificent coastline. If we log our forestsirresponsibly, streambeds will be destroyed and our fishingindustry will suffer.

But, California is not alone in facing this challenge. If weare going to leave a better planet for generations to come, wemust work within a global effort to ensure the economy andthe environment never become competing interests. UnitedNations World Environment Day will help us focus on thesecritical issues, but there is an added significance to the eventcoming to San Francisco.

Sixty years ago, the United Nations was born in the City bythe Bay. Representatives from fifty-one countries committedto preserving peace through international cooperation andcollective security founded the United Nations at the 1945charter convention in San Francisco.

Today, nearly every nation in the world belongs to theUnited Nations. Together, members work to maintaininternational peace, develop friendly relations, cooperate insolving international problems, and promote respect forhuman rights.

As the nations of the world meet this week in SanFrancisco, we can add another great principle to the list:working together to build a sustainable future and a healthyrespect for our planet ■

Jared Blumenfeld describes a pioneering series of accords for sustainable cities

FFor the first time in history, the majority of the planet’spopulation will soon live in cities. By 2025, 60 per cent ofhumanity will do so. One million people move to them

each week in a massive, continuing demographic migration.Our new urban planet has already created common

environmental challenges and opportunities. Mayors can shapethe destiny of the planet by developing truly sustainable urbancenters.

The key legacy of World Environment Day 2005, celebratedin San Francisco, will be the Urban Environmental Accords.Drafted by mayors, NGOs, universities, and UN agencies, theyfocus on 21 actions that all cities can take – and will be signedon the 60th Anniversary of the UN Charter, itself signed in thiscity in 1945.

The Accords are a series of environmental actions that havebeen implemented by at least one city. They take into accountthe fact that large city mayors share many commonresponsibilities: providing energy, clean water, recycling, publictransportation, parks, and urban planning. Clear and achievable,the entire Accords document takes up only two pages. They include:■ Adopting and implementing a policy to increase the use ofrenewable energy to 10 per cent of the city’s peak load withinseven years.■ Implementing "user-friendly" recycling and compostingprograms to provide alternative disposal options, with the goal

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Golden Gateway to Green Cities

UNEP has selected the City of San Francisco to hostthe main celebrations of World Environment Day2005. The event will coincide with the 60thanniversary of the birth of the United Nations in theCalifornian city. Mayors from around the world willmeet to celebrate green cities and create a plan fora sustainable urban future.

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of reducing per capita solid waste disposalto landfill and incineration by 20 per cent inseven years.■ Adopting a policy that mandates a greenbuilding rating system standard that appliesto all new municipal buildings.

The broad selection of Accords actionsallows flexibility while maintainingaccountability. By agreeing to them, mayorsenter an action-step process, beginning withpassing a local law and subsequentlymonitoring progress towards the targetgoals.

Like World Environment Day, theAccords offer an opportunity to reinforcethe importance of the United Nations inhelping to resolve global challenges –environmental and otherwise. They signifya new kind of international cooperation:forging a framework among cities ratherthan nations. Although there are more than400 international treaties, agendas, andconventions on record, there is often a gapbetween these international politicalcommitments and their fulfillment wherethey matter most – in our cities.

By signing the Accords, the mayorscommit to moving vital environmentalissues to the top of their agendas. Citizens ofthe signatory cities will also be responsiblefor keeping their mayors accountable totheir commitments.

Providing common-sense solutions tocommon problems, the Accords are a livingand dynamic process that set the stonesupon which each of us will walk on the pathto a sustainable future ■Jared Blumenfeld is Director of the San Francisco Department of theEnvironment

Mayor Gavin Newsomprepares to test drive a FordEscape Hybrid Taxi cabin San Francisco. InFebruary 2005 SanFrancisco became thefirst city in the USA touse hybrid SUVs astaxicabs when YellowCab Company andLuxor Cab Companypurchased a total of 15Hybrid Ford Escapes.

San Francisco Mayor GavinNewsom welcomesdelegates from aroundthe world on WorldEnvironment Day

SSan Francisco is honored tohost United Nations WorldEnvironment Day 2005. We

are delighted to work with theUnited Nations EnvironmentProgramme to make sure thatWorld Environment Day in SanFrancisco leaves a legacy that willadvance environmental wellbeinghere at home and around theworld.

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The theme for World EnvironmentDay 2005 is ‘Green Cities’. This isparticularly fitting since the 21stcentury is the first time that mostof the world’s population will livein cities. As urban populationsgrow, it becomes more and morevital to balance the needs of theenvironment, the economy, andsocial equity if we are going todevelop a way of living that cansustain our planet and our peopleinto future generations.

The population shift from ruralareas to the cities will have adramatic impact on the planet’sresources. It will also result in

significant political changes wherecity governments will becomedirectly responsible for solvingcritical environmental issues.

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Every city in the world depends onrural territories many times its sizeto provide food and water for itscitizens, to say nothing of theresources required to produceconsumer goods. But to date littleattention has been paid to developingthe tools cities will need to solvethese environmental challenges.

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World Environment Day 2005 willfeature a series of special eventsfocusing on urban environmentalissues such as recycling, renewableenergy, resource conservation,environmental justice and publichealth. Mayors from the world’slargest cities will share ideas andexperiences, establish goals forurban environmental improvement,and identify the means to attainthese goals. This will all be compiledinto a document called the SanFrancisco Urban EnvironmentalAccords, a first-ever set ofenvironmental agreements madebetween municipal governmentThese accords will help all of us toact locally, while thinking globally ■

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Yuriko Koike describes how one of the world’s most urbanised countries is working towards a sustainable environment through action on waste and climate change

Many of the world’s currentenvironmental problems arise fromfundamental socio-economic

activities, including regular business activitiesand daily life. Recognising this, we needfundamentally to re-evaluate our economicactivities and lifestyles. This can be done byproactively mobilizing all our knowledge ofenvironmental conservation. I believe thatthis will lead to the establishment of asustainable society by ensuring a synthesis ofenvironmental protection and economicgrowth.

Japan will advance policy measures tobring about a fundamental socio-economicshift to realise a sound material-cycle societyand establish a low-carbon economy.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof.Wangari Maathai, who serves as AssistantMinister for Environment of Kenya, highlyevaluated the Japanese spirit of “mottai-nai” –meaning behavior or attitude that respectsand conserves products and resources – whenshe visited Japan in February 2005. Believingthat it is necessary for the entire globe, shehas been working on disseminating the word,hoping that it enters everyday usage, like theJapanese word “tsunami’’.

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In the spirit of “mottai-nai”, Japan iscommitted to accelerating the establishmentof a sound material-cycle society through the3Rs: reducing, reusing and recycling waste. It is committed to promoting thecomprehensive and systematic reduction ofmaterials, and their sound cyclical use, so asto realise a zero-emission society. To achievethis, we will accelerate the reduction andrecycling of municipal wastes by formulatingguidelines on sorted collection and fees forwaste treatment.

We will encourage local governments to

build efficient and effective waste treatmentand recycling facilities, and johkasoh on-sitehousehold sewage treatment systems bycreating a new subsidy for establishing thesound material-cycle society. We will conducta review process to revise the Law for thePromotion of Sorted Collection andRecycling of Containers and Packaging.Revisions of other laws concerning wastetreatment – including the Waste Managementand Public Cleansing Law – will beintroduced during the current Diet session tostrengthen measures to address large-scaleillegal dumping and the inappropriate exportof wastes and to establish a more appropriatesystem

The promotion of reducing, reusing andrecycling wastes, resources and products –also known as the “3R Initiative”, – hasbecome an important issue internationally. A

ministerial meeting held in Japan in April2005 formally launched the 3R Initiative,advocated by Prime Minister Koizumi at theG8 Sea Island Summit in 2004. Through thisopportunity, I am committed to extending 3Ractivities into the broader internationalcommunity.

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In the past year, Japan first endured a record-breaking summer heat wave, and then founditself suffering great loss of life andsignificant damage from an extremely highnumber of typhoons hitting the mainland. Insuch circumstances, I believe every citizendirectly perceives the changes andabnormalities of the climate system, and theirconsciousness has been raised as a result. Thisheightened awareness gives us anopportunity to renew our awareness ofclimate change and other environmentalproblems as issues deeply connected to us.The frequency and magnitude of extremeweather events are projected to increase asclimate change advances.

International society took a step forwardin mitigating climate change with the KyotoProtocol’s entry into force on February 16,2005. I believe that it is essential for Japan –as the country which chaired the ThirdSession of the Conference of the Parties to theUNFCCC, at which the Protocol was adopted– to fulfill its commitment to its six per cent

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The Spirit of“Mottai Nai”

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11

reduction target. Furthermore, Japan should promote a low-carboneconomy, before other countries, through promoting mid- to long-termpolicies and measures including developing and disseminating relevanttechnologies.

To this end, the Government of Japan will set forth a KyotoProtocol Target Achievement Plan, including policies and measures toensure steady steps for realizing our country’s commitments under theProtocol. It will also promote measures including support for theconcentrated application of renewable energy to local communities; thedevelopment of state-of-the-art technologies and the creation of newbusinesses to combat climate change: the establishment of a voluntarydomestic emissions trading system; and the organization of an intensivecampaign to develop a broad national movement. In addition, we willbe working on a revision of the Climate Change Policy Law tointroduce counting, reporting and disclosure systems for greenhousegas emissions by business.

PPoossiittiivvee iinntteerraaccttiioonnss

The Government believes that a new environment tax would prove tobe an effective additional measure. Specific plans for introducing onewere released by the Ministry of the Environment in 2004, and theGovernment of Japan will review it in a timely manner, aiming toensure the effectiveness of the policies and measures laid forth in theKyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan.

International negotiations on commitments for “post-Kyoto” willbe launched in 2005 and Japan is committed to working proactively onestablishing common rules among all the parties through policydialogues with other countries.

As part of our work to establish a low-carbon economy and torealise a sound material-cycle society, we will promote activities toencourage a revision of economic activities and shifts in lifestyle. Thesewill include technological innovations and awareness raising amongcitizens to accelerate a significant change in the socio-economy.

We are committed to promoting efforts focused on localcommunities, especially within families and schools. We will promotecommunity development which will contribute to ensuring positiveinteractions between the environment and the economy. We are alsocommitted to promoting environmental conservation activities andenvironmental education, with which people will interact closely as

part of their daily lives – such as support for refurbishing schoolbuildings with eco-friendly designs, for introducing fuel cells and forpromoting environmental education at home. We further pledge topromote the development and dissemination of environmentaltechnologies, including applying nanotechnology, and to promote theincubation and enhancement of environmental businesses.

We are committed to continue making international contributions,including disseminating our environmental technologies and lifestylesand proactive involvement in environmental cooperation in andaround the Asian region.

On this basis, we will revise the existing national BasicEnvironment Plan to incorporate the fundamental perspectivesunderlying these new environmental policies.

As we implement these measures, we are committed to furtherstrengthening linkages between the government and other stakeholderslike citizens, civil groups, business entities and local governments. Totake one example, we will work to enable every stakeholder toapproach environmental issues with increased interest and participatein environmental conservation activities, through proactive efforts onpublic relations activities focused on and around “EnvironmentMonth”, every June.

Whether we are able to make the 21st century a “Century of theEnvironment” and turn our society into a sustainable one will bedetermined by how we live our lives today. We are at a crossroads. Wehave a responsibility to move forward unhesitatingly to accomplishwhat needs to be done to conserve the earth for future generations,looking beyond short-term convenience.

We are determined to make every effort to establish anenvironmentally sound nation, in which each one of us can realize weare responsible for protecting the earth, as we carefully assess ourefforts to improve the environment ■

Yuriko Koike is Minister of the Environment, Japan.

The frequency and magnitude ofextreme weather events areprojected to increase as climatechange advances

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second most important challenge facingAfricans, after the HIV/AIDS pandemic.The reasons are obvious enough. Africa isexpected to stop being a rural continentby 2030, with an estimated 51 per cent ofits people living in urban areas. Already astaggering 71 per cent of the urbanpopulation in Africa lives in slums – sobusiness as usual is a recipe for long-term disaster and conflict.

LLiiffee eexxppeeccttaannccyy

Global intra-city statistics clearly showthat slums are amongst the world's mostdangerous places to live. Their people arevictims of crime and violence, and suffera greater incidence of disease. Childmortality is much higher than elsewhere,life expectancy is much lower, and slumsare fast becoming breeding grounds forAIDS. In Nairobi – where over 60 per centof the urban population live on 5 per centof the land – 150 out of every 1000children die under the age of five,compared to 83.9 out of 1,000 deaths in

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OOne billion people around the worldnow live in city slums and theirnumbers are set to double over the

next 25 years. But slums are no moreinevitable than they are acceptable. Whileit may be difficult to overcome relativepoverty, it is perfectly possible to ensurethat the poor are provided with adequateshelter and basic services.

The history of cities in the developedworld proves the point. During thenineteenth century urban centers all overEurope and America exploded into majormetropolitan areas. London went from apopulation of 800,000 in 1800 to over 6.5million in 1900. Paris grew from 500,000to over 3 million. And by 1900, thepopulation of New York was 4.2 million.

The urban poor in all these cities livedin appalling conditions. With the advent ofthe mass media, their cause was takenup by many illustrious journalists andauthors – such as Dickens, Mayhew andZola – who engaged politicians andprofessionals to help change the policiesof their time.

DDeemmooggrraapphhiicc sshhiifftt

Now, over a hundred years later, some 50per cent of the world’s population live inurban areas. Europe, North and SouthAmerica and the Caribbean havestabilized with about 75 per cent of theirpopulations living in cities and towns –but UN-HABITAT's projections expect thestill predominantly rural Africa and Asiato go through a major demographic shift.One third of the 3 billion inhabitants of theworld's cities and towns, are nowslumdwellers. And if present trendscontinue, there will be 2 billion of them by2030.

The Commission for Africa report,Our Common Interest – for which I wasone of seventeen commissioners –recently highlighted urbanization as the

the formal areas of the city and 113 inrural areas.

The Millennium Declaration set atarget under the Millennium Develop-ment Goals, calling for the improvementof the lives of at least 100 million slumdwellers by 2020. The internationalcommunity has recognized the urgentneed for environmentally and sociallysustainable cities. Indeed, in 2002, theGeneral Assembly promoted UN-HABITAT into a fully fledged UnitedNations Programme on HumanSettlements to help the internationalcommunity meet the challenge ofurbanization. The problems of the built upenvironment are now considered a majorpriority, and for some time, UN-HABITAThas been working with all Habitat Agendapartners – such as governments, localauthorities, non-governmental organi-sations, the private sector, communitygroups and other UN agencies, especiallyUNEP – to improve the environmentalsustainability of cities and ensure that thepoor are given a right to the city.

At the 1972 Stockholm Conference onthe Human Environment, Indira Gandhi,then Prime Minister of India, stated that“Poverty is the greatest polluter of themall”. Today, as the urbanization of povertybecomes a stark reality, it has becomeincreasingly important to target theurban poor.

The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was oneof the first to recognize that internationaltargets for the natural environmentwould not be met without working at thelocal level. The inception of Localising

Citieswithout Slums Anna Tibaijuka calls for more ambitious strategiesfor improving the lives of slum dwellers andforestalling the development of new slums

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Agenda 21 was a good basis for the longterm cooperation between UN-HABITATand UNEP. Under it, much has beenachieved in cities around the world toensure that the capacity of localauthorities in managing the urbanenvironment is improved.

Take Nakuru, in Kenya, which was indanger of destroying the natural habitatof pink flamingos at its famous lake. Aftera decade of work with the local authority,it is the first city in the region to havedeveloped a comprehensive urbandevelopment plan. The process ofindustrialization has been rationalizedand the effect of pollutants minimized.This integrated approach also has takeninto account the living conditions of theurban poor living in slums along thelake's shore: their participation andinclusion has helped reduce thedangerous proliferation of sewage andsolid waste – and includes long termstrategies of slum upgrading.

The partnership between UN-HABITAT and UNEP includes suchprogrammes as Sustainable Cities andManaging Water for African Cities. TheSustainable Cities programme, whichworks around the world, aims toovercome the traditional operationalboundaries that have hamperedsuccessful environmental planning andimplementation.

Starting with consulting allstakeholders – from private businessesto street sellers, from governmentagencies to non-governmentalorganizations, from middle class houseowners to slum dwellers – it establishespriorities to turn round the managementof a city. Sustainable Cities projects haveturned chaotic cities like Dar es Salaam

into vibrant well-managed economichubs that run on private-publicpartnerships; this project was sosuccessful that the programme is nowbeing implemented in all Tanzanian citiesand towns. It has also formed the basis ofsubsequent interventions in slumupgrading.

MMaannaaggiinngg wwaatteerr

Managing Water for African Cities – acomparatively recent joint initiativebetween UN-HABITAT and UNEP – isbased on the premise that not enoughattention is given to the problems of theurban poor in accessing clean water andsanitation. All too often traditionalmeasurements confidently state that theyhave easy access to basic services –forgetting that each toilet is often used by500 people or that water comes fromburst pipes close to open sewers. UN-HABITAT and UNEP established theprogramme as a direct follow-up to the1997 Cape Town Declaration adopted byAfrican Ministers wishing to address thegrowing water crisis in Africa, and it isnow working in Abidjan, Accra, AddisAbaba, Dakar, Johannesburg, Lusakaand Nairobi. The programme iscontributing to water sector reform in fiveof these cities: environmental actionplans are helping to protect waterresources in three of them; and, in six,awareness-raising campaigns areengaging high-level political support forwater resource management and pro-poor investment.

With projects like this, UN-HABITAT,in partnership with UNEP, is hoping tohelp meet the Millennium DevelopmentGoals and to ensure that the urban poor

are given a right to the city. However, theinternational community will have todirect much more attention at theproblem of slums, if it is to be overcome.Indeed, UN-HABITAT argues that it isimportant to review the MillenniumDevelopment Goal (MDG) on slums if theinternational community is to overcomepoverty.

When the international communityset target 11 of Goal 7 in 2000 at anabsolute figure of 100 million slumdwellers, within the context of citieswithout slums, it was assumed that this –as approximately 10 per cent of the thenslum population – would be appropriate.However, this modest figure failed to takeinto account the expected increase inslum dwellers which – according to UN-HABITAT’s report, The Slum Challenge –will lead to them totaling 1.6 billion in2020. In other words, UN-HABITATargues that if the MDG is to be effective,more must be done to forestall the futuregrowth of slums. The internationalcommunity must commit itself to supporta range of activities, including: capacitybuilding for integrated national urbandevelopment strategies; improving theperformance of local governments inmanaging future urban growth andeffectively carrying out land use planning;and mobilizing resources moreeffectively.

Even more critical is the urgent needto find new and innovative financingmechanisms that can capitalize domesticsavings for bankable projects aimed atbuilding affordable housing. A goodexample of this is UN-HABITAT’s SlumUpgrading Facility whose long term aimis to provide guarantee mechanisms toleverage private sector funds for slumupgrading projects and pro-poorinvestments.

Partnerships between UN agencieslike the one between UNEP and UN-HABITAT can go a long way to meeting theMillennium Development Goals; but thereis still a need to find new and innovativeways of working together. The combinedefforts of all Habitat Agenda partners,donors, governments, local authorities,the private sector, non-governmentalorganisations and other UN agencies,should make it possible to ensure thatour children live in cities without slums –in a world of sustainable green cities ■

Anna Tibaijuka is the Executive Director ofUN-HABITAT.

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PEOPLE

Seven world figures have been named by UNEP as“Champions of the Earth”, an award for outstanding

environmental achievers and leaders from each regionof the world. The awards were presented at the UnitedNations Headquarters in New York on April 19th to HiissAll Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew; KingJigme Singye Wangchuk and the people of Bhutan;President Thabo Mbeki and the people of South Africa;Julia Carabias Lillo, formerenvironment minister ofMexico; Sheila Watt-Cloutierof Canada, Chair of the InuitCircumpolar Conference;Zhou Qiang and the All-ChinaYouth Federation; and –posthumously – to SheikhZayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan of the United ArabEmirates.

HHiiss AAllll HHoolliinneessss EEccuummeenniiccaall PPaattrriiaarrcchh BBaarrtthhoolloommeewwreceives the award for Europe for having taken the

lead among religious leaders in his concern for theenvironment. He has initiated seminars and dialogues

to discuss the need for themobilisation of moral andspiritual forces to achieveharmony between humankindand nature, including a series ofsymposia concentrating onwater, seas and rivers under thetitle Religion, Science and theEnvironment. The symposia alsoaim to encourage understanding

between faiths and to promote interreligious dialogue.

KK ii nn gg JJ ii gg mm ee SS ii nn gg yy ee WW aa nn gg cc hh uu kk aa nn dd tt hh eeppeeooppllee ooff BBhhuuttaann are given the award for Asia

and the Pacific in recognition of the country’s“commitment to placing the environment at the centreof its constitution and all its development plans”. Thejudges praise its “excellent environmental track recordwith more than 74 per cent of its land under forestcover, and 26 per cent of this cover designated asprotected areas.”

SShheeiikkhh ZZaayyeedd BBiinn SSuullttaann AAll--NNaahhyyaann receives the West

Asian award for his “lifetimework” to protect his country’senvironment, and his “widelyacclaimed” contributions toagriculture, afforestation andspecies protection. Under hisleadership 100 million trees were planted, hunting wasoutlawed more than a quarter of a century ago, and asanctuary was established on the island of Sir Bani Yas

to safeguard such endangered species as the Arabianoryx and the sand gazelle.

PPrreessiiddeenntt TThhaabboo MMbbeekkii and thepeople of South Africa have been

given the Africa award for thecountry’s “commit-ment to culturaland environmental diversity” andits efforts towards achieving thegoals encapsulated in the 2000Millennium Declaration and theWSSD Plan of Implementation.Particularly mentioned are its achievements in meetingthe Johannesburg targets on providing clean water andsanitation, and its world leadership in conservation

practices, including its“spearheading of the ground-breaking sponsorship of the PeaceParks concept to support cross-border conservation of criticallyimportant wild habitats”.

JJuulliiaa CCaarraabbiiaass LLiilllloo receives theaward for Latin America and the

Caribbean for her “efforts in co-ordinating research and rural developmentprogrammes in extremely impoverished peasantcommunities in the four regions of Mexico” and for her“success in working with different sectors that includegovernment, academia and civil society.”

SShheeiillaa WWaatttt--CClloouuttiieerr is recognisedwith the North American award

for her “contributions in addressingglobal warming” and in articulatingher people’s concerns “in the face ofthe devastating effects of climatechange and its relentless assault onInuit traditional life”. The judges also

cite her “exemplary contribution toglobal efforts to eliminatepersistent organic pollutants,which pose a particular threat toArctic peoples and ecosystems.”

Finally, ZZhhoouu QQiiaanngg and the All-China Youth Federation are

given a special award. Itrecognises Mr Zhou’s“outstandingachievements”as honorary chairman of the Federationand leader of the China Mother River ProtectionOperation which has “mobilised millions of Chineseyouth to protect the environment”. The judges praisethe Federation as “a very important force for protectingthe environment” recalling that it has “involved 300million young people and undertaken 882 afforestationprojects covering 191,000 hectares.”

His Holiness EcumenicalPatriarch Bartholomew

King Jigme SingeWangchuk

His Excellency SheikZayed Bin Al Nahyan

President Thabo Mbeki

Julia Carbias Lillo

Dr Zhou Qiang

Sheila Watt- Cloutier

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It is in cities that people gather toachieve rapid and harmoniousmaterial and cultural development,

and efficient and effective use of natural,space and intelligent resources. It is incities that civilizations integrate andevolve. While addressing challenges andproblems in the process of development,cities maintain their glamour and keepimproving.

Transport, one of cities’ mostimportant services, plays a vital role ineconomic and social development. As oneof China’s most dynamic cities, Shanghaihas enjoyed a rapid, yet stable, era ofeconomic development since 1992, withannual GDP growth maintained at over10 per cent. Through years of strenuousefforts, it has also registered remarkableachievements in transport development.The 2010 World Expo, which injects newvigor and vitality into the economy, willpresent a good opportunity for Shanghaito improve its environmental quality andaccelerate urban development, and willchallenge sustainable development.

Since 1990, Shanghai has optimizedits energy mix, relocated pollutingindustries, and focused on developing thetertiary sector, leading to less pollutionfrom burning coal year after year.However, the number of vehicles on thestreets has increased so significantly thatthe air pollution from exhausts has gonefrom bad to worse. Over the past decadeand more, emissions of NOx have beenrising annually: in 2000 they accountedfor over 70 per cent of the total airpollution in Shanghai’s downtown area.

Increasing demand for transport,driven by rapid development, has exertedgreat pressure on the passenger andcargo transport system and on roadtraffic. Shanghai has been faced withtraffic congestion since the mid-1990s.As its socio-economic developmentcontinues, the total number of vehicles isforecast to reach two million by 2010 andeven exceed three million by 2020. With50-140 per cent more vehicles on the

roads, Shanghai’s metropolitantransportation system will face evengreater challenges.

EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall ddeevveellooppmmeenntt

The Shanghai Metropolitan TransportWhite Paper was drafted – with theinvolvement of all Shanghai governmentdepartments, and research institutionsfrom home and abroad – to achievecoordinated social, economic andenvironmental development whilemaintaining rapid and stable economicgrowth. It laid down a strategy ofdeveloping a three-dimensionalmetropolitan transport system anddefined a policy of prioritizing thedevelopment of public transport. TheShanghai Government is committed toimplementing the White Paper and hasimproved the city’s transport in a down-to-earth way by building facilities,improving demand management andreforming the mechanisms ofgovernment administration. Long-termplans have been made to achieve andboost harmonious development betweentransport and socio-economic advance.

Transport holds the key to a city and itis a perpetual task to achieve sustainable

economic development. The ShanghaiGovernment invited experts from homeand abroad to carry out research onfeasible measures to promotesustainable transport. In November 2003,it signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding on Shanghai SustainableTransport Partnership with EMBARQ (theWorld Resource Institute Center forTransportation and Environment) and theShell Foundation to mark the beginningof joint research on developing indicatorsof sustainable transport for the city. Thefirst amendment to the White Paper wasalso organized by the Shanghai MunicipalGovernment.

Several medium-term results havebeen achieved in building a completesystem of indicators for comprehensivelyevaluating sustainable transport.Establishing such a system is expected tofacilitate quantitative analysis andreasonable evaluation of Shanghai’smetropolitan transport, and to make ourpolicies more practical, focused andconducive to coordinated socio-economicdevelopment. It will also play a positiverole in conserving resources andprotecting the environment in ourbeautiful city and on providingconvenient, safe, comfortable and cleanmetropolitan transport for our citizens.As a member of the Earth Family,Shanghai is committed to shouldering –with other cities – the responsibility ofmaintaining the beauty and harmony ofthe planet on which we depend ■

Han Zheng is Mayor of Shanghai.

Rapid ProgressHAN ZHENG describes how one of the world’s mostpopulous cities is pursuing sustainable developmentin transport

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At a glance:Greening Cities

Think global, act local. The sloganhas been around for decades. Butas the impacts of rapid urbanization

increase around the world, it has perhapsnever been more relevant.In 1950, less than one out of three peoplelived in a city or town. Today nearly half -3 billion - live in urban areas. By 2030almost two out of three will live in citiesand 90 per cent of this urban populationgrowth will be in developing countries. In1950, only New York City had more than10 million inhabitants: by 2015 there willbe 23 of these “megacities”, 19 of them inthe developing world. Yet the most rapidurbanization will not be in these, but inurban centres with currently fewer than500,000 people.

The reasons for this rapidurbanization are economic, social, andcultural. In the past, urbanization in thedeveloped world was mostly based oneconomic growth, where jobs wereavailable, and resulted in urbanproductivity. The new urbanization indeveloping countries, however, is notalways tied to the availability of jobs.Many people come to the city for social

interests or the hope of a job, only to findthemselves trapped in slums, with fewprospects. More than a billion people arein this situation, mainly in Asia, Africa andLatin America - and they could grow tomore than two billion in just the next 15years. For the environment theimportant issue however, is not why, buthow this urbanization is taking place -and its consequences for the planet andits ecosystems.

Natural ecosystems are at the core ofour survival, whether we live in a city orrural area. They provide air to breatheand food and water to eat and drink. Theyregulate our environment by cleansingour air (e.g. by trees) and filtering ourwater (e.g. though wetlands). Finally,they enrich our lives with green spaceand wilderness areas where we canrecreate and be at peace. Without eachof these of services our entire well-beingwould be at risk.

Urban areas “import” huge amountsof goods - such as fuels, foods and water- from ecosystems beyond their borders,like rural farms, forests, and watercatchments. Cities then “export” their

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UUrrbbaanniizzaattiioonn hhaass lleedd ttoo ddaammaaggeeddeeccoossyysstteemmss wweellll bbeeyyoonndd cciittyy bboorrddeerrss --uupp ttoo nnaattiioonnaall aanndd gglloobbaall lleevveellss

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wastes – such as garbage, wastewater,air pollution - back out of the city. Bothprocesses have an impact on the deliveryof ecosystem services.

Urbanization has led to damagedecosystems well beyond city borders - upto national and global levels. Forest andwetland ecosystems, supporting vastbiodiversity, are threatened by theunsustainable import of goods, such asfrom felling forests, and from theconstruction of unplanned housing incritical peri-urban and rural ecosystems.“Exports” of wastes increasingly pollutedownstream rivers and coastal waters ascities swell beyond their capacityadequately to treat, and dispose of, them.Air pollution also knows no boundaries:about 80 per cent of greenhouse gases -leading to climate change - now comefrom cities.

This climate change may not beimmediately on the minds of localgovernments under pressure ofurbanization. Nevertheless, the resultingincrease in the frequency and intensity ofstorms has significant human andfinancial costs, particularly in coastalcities subject to hurricanes. Climatechange also leads to unpredictable andextreme temperatures which cantranslate to higher urban energy costs for

production, heating and cooling, thuscreating a vicious cycle of moregreenhouse gas emissions.

SSuussttaaiinnaabbllee ssoolluuttiioonnss

Sustainable solutions exist. Even moreimportantly, there are solutions thatsimultaneously address both local andglobal environmental problems. Take, forexample, improvements to transport andenergy generation, the largestcontributors both to urban air pollutionand to worldwide climate change.Cleaner transport fuels and vehicles,cleaner cooking fuels like natural gas,renewable energy sources, and greaterenergy efficiency, would significantlyreduce air pollution and mitigate globalwarming. Cleaner air would improvepublic health, and thus bring greaterproductivity and economic gain forindividuals and the community.

Water resources also present suchlocal-global links – and solutions.Cutting rural forests to “import” woodfuel into cities and “exporting” in-appropriately treated wastes andwastewaters both degrade importantecosystems and water resources. Oncedegraded, watersheds lose their ability tosupply, store and cleanse the city’s water

resources. But cities that have invested inprotecting water resources outside theirborders have saved money on treatmentcosts.

World Environment Day 2005 and itsfocus on Green Cities – Plan for thePlanet embodies the local-global link andpresents an opportunity to share,debate, and learn about such solutions.Best practices in public transport,energy, urban green space, waterresource management, and other issues,must be shared and expanded. Citiesfrom all countries must join together forboth the local and common good.Lessons are there to be shared, North toSouth, South to South and South to North.In 2000, the world’s leaders united andagreed the Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs). The seventh goal –environmental sustainability, runs as athread woven into all of them . Rapidurbanization threatens quickly to unravelthis MDG fabric – unless we recognizethat ecosystems provide vital services forurban dwellers and integrate this intodevelopment planning ■

Tim Kasten is the Chief of the PolicyDevelopment Branch of UNEP,responsible for coordinating urbanenvironmental activities.

Fuels Foods

Drinking Water

300,000 tonnes of waste water

320,000 tonnes of water

25,000 tonnesof Carbon Dioxide

11,500 tonnesof fossil fuels

1,600 tonnesof solid waste

2,000 tonnes of food, much of which is produced outside

the city

Source: The World Watch Institute/UNEP (2002): Vital Signs 2002, the Trends that areShaping Our Future UNEP/Earthscan (2003): Global Environment Outlook 2003

epartment of Economic and Social Affairs (2001): WorldProspects, The 2001 Revision - Data Tables and Highlights

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LLondon is a wonderful place to livebut with 7.4 million people living,working and travelling within a

small geographic area, huge strains areplaced on our environment. I wantLondoners to find out about this andrealise that it is easier than they maythink to make small changes towards amore sustainable lifestyle.

So to celebrate this year’s WorldEnvironment Day I have organised thefirst ever “London green lifestyles show”.This provides an insight into the city ofthe future, showcasing emerginginnovations and exciting new products togive further inspiration to those alreadyinvolved in protecting the environmentand engage a larger section of Londonerswho are interested in the latest lifestyletrends and what they can do to make adifference

Even simple things like switching off atelevision on standby, only filling up a kettlewith the amount of water needed, or recyclingmore rubbish can make a difference topreserving London and ensuring that futuregenerations can enjoy Britain’s great capitalcity.

People often struggle with the concept ofsustainable development, which is aboutimproving the quality of life for all of us nowand in the future. It is important that we domore to live a more sustainable lifestyle – andwe should all make it our responsibility to doso. But I also want to be known as a Mayorwho has taken bold policy decisions toimprove London’s environment and to makeit a fantastic place to live for generations tocome.

In February 2003 I introduced acongestion charge on vehicles entering thecentre of the city. Doom-mongers predicted

technological failures, gridlock and rat –running, but they have been proved wrong.It has succeeded in cutting traffic delays,and continues to do so. Congestion has beenreduced by 30 per cent in the charge zoneand emissions of pollution from traffic aredown 12 per cent.

The charge has made central London acleaner, safer and more pleasant place towork, visit and live. Support has grown asresidents have seen its tangible benefits andthe improvements it has made to theirenvironment. Before it was introduced 39per cent of Londoners backed the proposal.During its first year this increased to 48 percent and in the latest survey support hadincreased to 54 per cent.

London’s air quality is much cleanernow than in the smoke-filled streets of theVictorian city, when every householdburned coal. Smoke and sulphur dioxidelevels in central London declined sharplyfollowing the introduction of smokelesszone legislation in the 1960s, and thisdownward trend has broadly. But it still hasthe worst air quality in the UK and airpollution is estimated to cause 1,600premature deaths among Londoners eachyear. This is unacceptable.

LLooww eemmiissssiioonn zzoonneess

I am committed to introducing a LowEmission Zone to ban the most pollutingcoaches and lorries from Greater London,making it the only major city in the world tohave taken such a radical step to tackle airpollution. This move is justified by recentstatistics from the London AtmosphericEmissions Inventory which show that levelsof nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fine particles(PM10 ) in the city are still at high levels,damaging to health.

As a first step, the city’s 20,000 taxis –which are currently responsible for 24 percent of fine particles and 12 per cent of NOxemissions from road transport in centralLondon – will have to meet strict emissionsstandards. The cost of converting them toreach the new standards will be met by a flatrate fare increase of 20 pence per journeyfrom April 2005. All London buses will befitted with particulate traps by December2005 – reducing emissions of PM10 (andother pollutants) by over 90 per cent andmaking our fleet one of the cleanest in thecountry. These measures should reduceemissions, improve health and go a longway towards meeting the Government’s air

Charging INTO THE FUTUREKEN LIVINGSTONE outlines his programme for a greenrevolution in one of the world’s biggest cities, and showshow it is increasingly gaining public support

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quality objectives for the capital.Since the Greater London Council was

abolished in 1986 there has been no singlebody responsible for strategic wastemanagement across London and London isfacing several challenges in dealing with itswaste – meeting the requirements of theLandfill Directive, becoming self-sufficientand managing waste close to its productionpoint.

Currently, over two thirds of London’smunicipal waste are exported out of thecapital to the surrounding regions. I have set atarget for 80 per cent of municipal waste to bemanaged in London by 2020. This is anecessary but ambitious target in a city withincreasing and competing demands on landuse and with a forecast growth in populationof 800,000 by 2016. To achieve this level ofself-sufficiency, London as a city has todramatically increase its levels of recyclingand develop new technology recoverycapacity. But the delivery of a strategicapproach to waste management is hamperedby London’s existing governancearrangements.

HHuuggee ccoonnttrriibbuuttiioonn

London also makes a huge contribution toclimate change, one of the biggest issues nowfacing humanity. As a world city, it needs totake a lead in tackling it and act as an exampleto the rest of the country. I am bringing thebest experts together to implement a radicalnew programme for renewable energy. Thenew London Climate Change Agency willhelp make the city more energy efficient andincrease the amount of energy we use fromrenewable sources.

Our target is to reduce carbon dioxideemissions by 23 per cent by 2016. Much ofour work will focus on improving energyefficiency in residential and commercialbuildings. It is important that new buildingsare designed from the outset withsustainability in mind: I have produced atoolkit to encourage planners and developersto embrace the new technology.

I want to see a London with moreaccessible green spaces and cleaner air,which is actively working to tackle climatechange. We must be prepared for London togrow and for the population to increase overthe next 20 years. This makes the quest forsustainable solutions all the more pressing ■

Ken Livingstone is Mayor of London.

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Cities and towns must relate to people's lives, but they

often seem to eliminate human participation, muses

Tokiko Kato, the great Japanese folk-singer and

committed environmentalist.

“I want towns to be able to nurture treasured

memories, to be places where people can enjoy walking,

talking and hanging out - with street corners where children

can play”, she told Our Planet. “They should have landscapes

changing day by day, where we can enjoy living nature.

“Ancient cities used to allow people to touch and

decorate them. But the more urban life is modernised, the

less close the relationship between the city and each person

becomes. In its stew of inorganic structure, it looks as if

humans are redundant.

“Over the past two decades we have placed too

much value on things that are big, strong and fast. From now

on we must value the things that are slow and sensitive.”

Ms Kato, whose singing career spans 40 years, is

sometimes called 'the Japanese Joan Baez'. In 1960, while still

in her teens, she marched in protest on the Japanese Diet

building and later married a well-known student activist

while he was still serving a prison term.

She first became interested in the environment in

1972, the year of the groundbreaking Stockholm Conference,

when she gave birth to her first child. “I learned that there

was a risk that PCBs could accumulate in a baby from its

mother's milk”, she says. “This made me realise the terrible

situation when pollution can affect people's precious lives,

without their knowing it.”

In the meantime, she had already become a

successful singer. In 1965, while still a student she won an

amateur competition and launched her career, winning the

Great Record Prize for a new singer at the Japan Record

Grand Prix the next year. She has recorded many hits, and

has received a Chevalier Medal for Culture from the French

Government. At the 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, the

then Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori, admitted to

being “one of Tokiko Kato's fans.”

She has become equally well-known as an

environmentalist, acting both as a Councillor and Panda

Ambassador for WWF Japan, and as a UNEP special envoy.

During widespread travels she has been shocked by “the loss

of forests in Thailand and Indonesia, the alarming

desiccation of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and many other

examples of ecological destruction – all due to the

overwhelming power we now have at our fingertips.”

She was encouraged, however to find that

“communities in Fiji and Tonga kept their traditional way of

life, planting mangroves and building a wall - using sand and

coral – to protect their land from cyclones.“ She adds: “For

us to be sustainable, we must respect and revive local

wisdom”.

This, she believes, also applies to music. She has

recorded traditional songs of the Ainu - the indigenous

people of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, - and says: “It is

very important to inherit the wisdom and abilities human

beings have developed for ages. I am concerned to preserve

traditional music, dances and festivals around the world

because they can play a very important role in revitalising

communities.”

She also believes that “a musician can use music as

a means to promote environmental work”, even though this

has to be carried out practically on the ground. “We should

see the world as a garden, and each one of us should feel

responsible for its cleanliness” she says.

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Star profile: Tokiko Kato

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THE FEMALEFactorELISABETH GATEAU explains that increasing the number ofwomen in local decision-making holds the key toenvironmental sustainability

There are many key factors forachieving environmental sustain-ability, but the effective

management of cities is crucial. WorldEnvironment Day on Green Cities willhighlight the crucial role played byMayors and local councillors, men andwomen, – but the role of women in localdecision-making is particularly importantfor long-term success.

The members of United Cities andLocal Governments (UCLG) – the worldlocal government organisation – arecommitted to supporting initiatives formore women in local government toachieve both gender equality and theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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Increasing the number of elected womenmakes a tangible difference to thedecisions taken by local authorities andcan foster the changes in culture andperception needed to push issues likeenvironmental sustainability and genderequality up the agenda. Systematicallyintegrating women augments thedemocratic basis, as well as theefficiency and quality, of localgovernment activities.

The link between women’sparticipation in governance, genderadvancement and achieving the MDGshas long been underestimated.Leadership shown by women in theworld’s poorest communities is a vitaltool for achieving the goals, andincreasing their number in local decision-making is therefore important not only forwomen but for men, children and allhumanity.

UCLG also supports partnershipsbetween elected and grassroots women.The work of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate,Wangari Maathai, shows the impact ofgrassroots women in Kenya. Initiatives toestablish regular dialogue betweengrassroots women’s groups and womenmayors and councillors have proven to bean effective global tool in getting morewomen into politics and advancinggender-sensitive policies.

Networks of elected women, such asin Latin America and Europe, havefacilitated national, regional and globalexchange on safer cities programmes –and better planning to address women’sconcerns.

UCLG research estimates that 20 percent of the world’s councillors are female.Europe still has the highest participation

of women in decision making, but the gapis closing with other regions like LatinAmerica. Indeed, some African countries,such as Namibia and Uganda, now rivalthe most advanced nations in Europe withover 40 per cent women’s participation atlocal level.

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There is a long way to go to reach thelevels of gender equality necessary forsustainable development, but there is aclear opportunity to take decisive action.That is why the UN Millennium ProjectTask Force recommends that women’sparticipation in local political bodiesshould be an indicator in measuringprogress in achieving the MDGs. Mayors and councillors will go to the UNMillennium Summit in September torequest support and recognition asleaders for global change. Localgovernments are uniquely placed toimplement the MDGs and this must berecognised if they are to be achieved by2015.

Success in achieving environmentalsustainability and meeting the MDGsdoes not just benefit from the increasedparticipation of women in local politics - itdepends on it. Every day elected womenare making a real and tangible differenceto the quality of local, national and globalgovernance Women mayors andcouncillors in cities and communities areleading the way to a more sustainable,equitable and just world ■

Elisabeth Gateau is Secretary General ofUnited Cities and Local Government.

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Pa Chan is a leader at KlongLumnoon, a small community of 49households on the outskirts of

Bangkok. When I visited recently, sheand a big group of community memberswere dredging out silt, water hyacinthand garbage from the small drainagecanal running alongside the settlement.This is a monthly ritual here, andeveryone pitches in. The canal used torun black and smell foul, but the peopleof the community began producing theirown organic liquid compost and pouring itinto water, and now it is green and full ofcatfish. These people used to besquatters in Klong Lumnoon, but after along and bitter struggle against eviction,they negotiated successfully to buy asmall part of the land - and then designedand constructed their own housing andinfrastructure, as a collective project.They did not just transform themselvesfrom embattled squatters to proudhouse-owners, but learned how workingtogether makes possible many thingsthey could not do individually.

But let Pa Chan tell the story :“When I first came to Bangkok as a younggirl, 35 years ago, I stayed in several placesand finally ended up here. We may havelooked like a community of poor people livingtogether, but back then we didn't know eachother very well and kept to ourselves. Therewasn't much trust and there was stealing,jealousy, all kinds of problems. To thegovernment and society outside, we werealmost not human beings.

“But then came the struggle againsteviction and the slum upgrading program. Wehad to talk to each other, save our money

collectively and work together as a group. Atfirst, we didn't have much faith that a group ofpoor, uneducated people like us could take onsuch big task: usually housing projects aredeveloped by government agencies or peoplewith technical knowledge. But we keptsaving, kept coming together, and kept talkingand helping each other to deal with theproblems that came up. Eventually, we wereable to persuade the landlord to sell us aportion of land. We set up a cooperative sowe could own land collectively, and thenbegan the work of laying basic services andbuilding new houses.

"At first, we thought we'd hire acontractor, but after some calculations, wefigured that we could save three or fourhundred thousand baht (US$ 7,000 - 10,000)if we did the work ourselves. So we dividedourselves into teams and set to work. Besidespicking up construction skills, we learned alot about each other's lives and families in thetwo years it took to build our new community.The construction process also became ourcommunity building, our trust building.

Nowadays, everybody knows everybodyhere, and we live like a big family. I can leavemy children in the community when I go out,and feel safe knowing they'll be looked after.When the building work is finished, we haveplans to plant trees and vegetables so ourcommunity will be green and clean."

DDeevveellooppmmeenntt iinntteerrvveennttiioonn

This is just one small example of whatcan happen when a developmentintervention emphasizes people as thekey to making change. People like PaChan and her neighbours have come along way from their decades of isolation,illegality and powerlessness. With thesenew relationships and this newconfidence, Klong Lumnoon has becomea secure, healthy and vibrant place to live.Its residents now have the confidence to

take full responsibility for managing anyaspect of their community's development– physical or social. And even a poorwoman like Pa Chan has become aregular speaker and an important adviserto many other communities andinstitutions in Bangkok and other citiesaround Thailand.

Why can’t we make a similar shift inhow larger city development processeswork? People are the spirit of any city.They are the creators: they provide theenergy, the labor and the life that makecities function. It is time to look at themas the focus of city development. It istime to find ways them to get involved inour growing cities, so that they feel a partof whatever has been (or is to be)developed in their local constituencies –communities, wards or districts, alongtheir canals or around their markets.

How can people and communitiesplay a part in the planning, the decision –making, the doing and the managing oftheir cities? How can they grow and behealthy as their cities grow? How can webegin a process where, little by little, thecity begins to belong to people – whetherpoor or not? This calls for a big leap – achange in the city development paradigm.How can the system make room for theforce of people's creativity to spring upand flourish so as to create this newurban development culture?

It is important to open up larger spacefor people to come together and to take

Unlocking PeopleENERGYSOMSOOK BOONYABANCHA calls for a new approachto sustainable cities where people are made thesubject, rather than the object, of developement

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We may have lookedlike a community ofpoor people livingtogether

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up development activities in theirlocalities - activities like house-building,community upgrading, canal-cleaning,and recycling or revitalizing communitymarkets. When a housing project is to bedeveloped, for example, the peopleaffected should be able to determine howthey want to live together, how the socialsystem is to be developed, what formtheir new housing will take, and whatkind of management system will beinstituted. Rather than have architects,planners or developers just planning allthis on paper for them.

Similarly, if some environmentalfeature of a city (like a canal, river, lake,mountain, historic site or shoreline) hasbecome degraded, people who live withinor around it can help develop it and, in theprocess, become its protectors andmaintainers. This would give people asense of sharing in the management oftheir city and it will build relationshipsbetween them and their improvedsurroundings.

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If we see people as the subject ofdevelopment, we have to create space forthem to participate more actively and tohave a stronger sense of ownership ofwhat happens in their constituencies.Instead of the city being a vertical unit ofcontrol, these smaller units - people-

based and local - can be a system of self-control for a more creative, moremeaningful development.

When local development initiativescome from communities, people becomethe doers, and feel that the developmentof the larger environment is part of theircommunities, part of their lives, part oftheir achievement. Canal-cleaningactivities in many communities have leadto many others, such as cultural eventscelebrating the long history of living withThailand's life-giving waterways. Theseactivities are the urban people's way ofrespecting nature, since canals bringwater, life, wealth, fish, transportchannels, income-earning opportunities– and a vivid reminder of our unignorablerelationship with nature, in the centre ofthe city.

Development interventions should tryto create space for people to be the doers,for them to be able to lead thedevelopment process with confidence.We just need to understand thetechniques to unlock this people energyand to channel it into a creative new force

for city development. This must besupported by adopting flexible financialmanagement mechanisms to allowpeople the freedom – as a group – toundertake development activities theyinitiate or need.

Individual people in Asian cities nowhave a clear bilateral relationship withthe state, but often very few horizontalones among themselves. How can asingle politician – or a set of politicians orgovernment officials – possibly manageall the needs and aspirations of a city’sfive or ten million inhabitants even ifgiven the power to do so? If we startbuilding a lot of smaller constituencieswithin a city, where people start relatingto each other – and sharing betweenconstituencies – a lot of horizontallearning, linking, and creativity will startto happen.

A city is not a homogeneous unit.Cities are getting very, very big - many inAsia now number in the tens of millions –much too big to make sensemonolithically. It is easy to fall into thetrap of believing that only gigantic sizedpolicy decisions and mega-projects cantame and streamline these teeming, out-of-control agglomerations of humanity.But this kind of thinking leads to many ofthe unsustainable development attitudesthat we labor under today.

It is possible to turn this around. If,instead, we look at cities as collections ofmany small, diverse and overlappingconstituencies and allow the people ofeach to take part in developing their lives,their areas and their ways of relating toeach other – with proper coordination –then the human element and scale canreappear. Cities will begin to bemanagable by their own citizens.

Asian cities are clearly bewildered bytheir recent explosion of growth, but theycan draw on a long and rich history of howto manage coexisting interests anddiverse populations with diverse needs. Ifwe open up space for this enormouspopular energy and allow it to play astronger part in the larger systems in ourcities, we will start seeing a lot of excitingnew management systems emerging,and new directions in sustainable citydevelopment by the people themselves ■

Somsook Boonyabancha is the Director ofthe Community Organisations DevelopmentInstitute, Thailand.

Canal-cleaning activities inmany communities havelead to many others, suchas cultural events cele-brating the long history ofliving with Thailand's life-giving waterways

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The urban population of Africa, Asiaand Latin America is now nearlythree times that of the rest of the

world. UN projections suggest that mostof the growth in the global population upto 2020 will be in urban areas and nearlyall of it will be in those three continents. Alarge and growing proportion of theworld’s poor are urban dwellers, lackingadequate incomes, secure housing andbasic services. Urban locations are theplaces to begin to fulfil the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs).

How long will most governments andinternational agencies continue to believethat poverty is mainly a ruralphenomenon? It is to cities that the ruralpoor migrate to fulfil their aspirations fora better life.

Why have fifty years of developmentcooperation failed to address the needs ofmuch of the urban population in low- andmiddle-income nations? One of the most

plausible explanations is the failure ofmost development initiatives to consultand work with the urban poor (and, wherepossible, also with local governments) indevising solutions that are locallyappropriate. Yet these people’s needs arethe justification for these developmentinitiatives – and for all the agencies thatfund them – and most internationalagencies claim to support ‘participation’.There is not much evidence that this mostbasic limitation is even being recognized– let alone addressed.

Most discussions of how to meet theMDGs focus on large increases in aid,debt relief and national poverty reductionstrategies. But they neglect the localchanges on which the achievement ofmost of them depend. There arehundreds of millions of slum dwellerswhose unmet needs for water, sanitation,health care, schools etc. will have to beaddressed if the MDG targets are to be

achieved. So these hundreds of millionsof slum dwellers will have to get localorganizations to change their approachesso they can have land for housing (ortenure of the land they already occupy),infrastructure and services (includingwater and sanitation), and finance tosupport the construction or improvementof their houses. Many of the deprivationssuffered by slum dwellers are the resultof local organizations refusing to workwith them – or not being allowed to do soby higher authorities.

MMiilllleennnniiuumm PPrroojjeecctt

Discussions within the MillenniumProject Taskforce on Improving the Livesof Slum Dwellers, on which we bothserved, emphasized the importance ofcommunity-driven solutions – and whatgovernments and international agenciesneed to do to support them. We placeless emphasis on the need for very largeincreases in international assistance andmore on the need for governments andinternational agencies to change the waythey work with urban poor groups. Theyneed to be more accountable andtransparent to them. We also have lessfaith in government-directed orinternational agency-directed, pro-fessionally managed solutions, unless

Think LocalSHEELA PATEL AND DAVID SATTERTHWAITE call forcommunity-driven solutions to start meeting the MillenniumDevelopment Goals in towns and cities

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urban poor groups are sufficiently strong, representative andorganized to ensure that these address their needs andpriorities.

How can local government organizations be made more pro-poor? Or less anti-poor? Or to phrase it another way, how canthe relationship between those with unmet needs and localorganizations, especially city and municipal governments, bechanged? Other changes are, of course, needed from nationalgovernments and international agencies – but, in the end, theeffectiveness of many of these depend on whether they makelocal governments and other local organizations more effectivein ensuring local needs are met, and more accountable to thosewith unmet ones. Local government does not provide for allneeds, nor should it do so. But it has a major influence on howlocal markets operate, including those that are particularlyimportant to low-income groups – such as those for land,housing and water and, in many instances, building materialsand credit. It can also have a major influence on the effectivenessof local NGOs and their accountability to the urban poor.

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Slum/shack dweller organizations are active in about 22countries in Asia and Africa. Instead of waiting for developmentto come to them, they create spaces and scope for communitygroups (especially women) to take action themselves and to worktogether to negotiate with local government to address priorityissues that they cannot achieve by themselves.

Over the last decade - Shack Dwellers International (SDI) – anetwork of community organizations and federations of urbanslum or shack dwellers – has increasingly supportedcommunities in negotiating for land, housing, sanitation andwater, and has created local networks that begin dialogues tobring change with their city and government institutions.Communities support each other in learning new skills anddeveloping confidence to explore solutions that they previouslynever considered were within their realm.

In Mumbai, India, the communities developed a strategy for aprogram where they design, construct and maintain lavatories –while cities pay for their construction – ensuring that millions ofpeople have access to sanitation where previously they had none.

In South Africa, community federations are working with thecity of Durban in an ambitious program to improve conditions inall its slums and shanty towns.

They are also working with the Methodist Church of SouthernAfrica to locate unused church land and hand it over tocommunities needing land: they hope, in the process, toencourage the state to speed up the pace of turning over its ownunused land.

When slums near the railways in Nairobi faced demolition,the federations suggested to the Kenyan railways and to thegovernment that they might visit Mumbai, where over 15,000households along the tracks had been relocated through a joint

venture between the community, the state and railways. The Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI),

a unique Thai government institution, helps over 2,000communities in over 200 cities to work in partnership withmunicipalities to address the housing and other issues of thepoor.

MMaannttrraa ooff ddeevveellooppmmeenntt

Decentralization has become a mantra of development and mostsolutions are, indeed, best developed at local levels. Whether inan emergency or in an ongoing development process, stronglocal actors produce more sustainable development solutions:the success of one phase acts as the foundation for the next setof activities and projects. But, crucially, this requires a strongcentre – one that provides resources, helps build capacity andarbitrates the tensions that often lie between local actors and thediffering priorities they represent.

Decentralization often occurs without building up strongstakeholders, without arbitration mechanisms that aretransparent and deemed to be just, and without adequateresources. This makes it more a matter of “passing the buck”than of facilitating the process by which local actors, withseemingly different immediate goals, pool their capacities andresources together in pursuit of a longer term universallyacceptable one. Global institutions and national governmentshave crucial roles in facilitating the transfer of knowledge, ofstrategies and resources that will turn local clashes overresources into solutions acceptable to all ■

Sheela Patel is the Director of the Society for Promotion of AreaResource Centres, India, working in alliance with the National SlumDwellers Federation and Mahila Milan.

David Satterthwaite works at the International Institute forEnvironment and Development, and edits the journal Environment andUrbanization.

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Slum/shack dwellerorganizations are active inabout 22 countries in Asiaand Africa.

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Developing country cities, which willdouble or treble their built area duringthe next few decades, have an

opportunity to create better humanenvironments than existing ones. Theseenvironments, fertile for happiness, wouldattract and retain highly qualified and creativepeople and thus promote economicdevelopment.

In our post-communist age, the way citiesare created and organized can build on socialinclusion and equality in the quality of life. Adifferent urban model can be created,adopting – as a guiding rule – a basicdemocratic principle: the prevalence ofpublic good over private interest.

Although Bogotá – where I was mayorfrom 1998 to 2001 – is still far from being amodel, we and others were able quickly andradically to transform the attitudes of itscitizens towards their city, prioritizingpeople’s happiness over cars’ mobility.

As developing country cities becomemore economically developed, theautomobile becomes the main source ofdeterioration of the quality of life. Wide,high-velocity roads, dangerous to cross,become like fences in a cow pasture,separating neighborhoods and making thecity less humane.

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Children are kept enclosed at home, in fear ofmotor-vehicles and can only go outunaccompanied when they really cease to bechildren. Often there are no sidewalks. Evenwhen there are, parking bays are carved outof them, or cars simply park on them in asymbolic ritual that illustrates society’sinequality: members of the car-owningminority are first class citizens, pedestriansare not.

If car use is not restricted, it demandsunlimited investments in road infrastructurewhich devour scarce public funds that shouldinstead go to water and sewage supply,

schools, parks and meeting the other basicneeds of the poor. Road infrastructure alsofacilitates migration of upper income groupsto low-density suburbs, making it impossibleto provide quality, low-cost, high frequencypublic transport. As traffic worsens, decisionsmay be made to invest in extremelyexpensive rail systems instead of taking roadspace away from private vehicles for qualitybus systems to transport people to work.These dent public finances still moreprofoundly, and thus impede solving theneeds of the poor even further.

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Bogotá began by instituting responsiblepublic management - which meant reducingbureaucracy, increasing tax revenues andprivatizing some government tasks such asgarbage collection. Essential needs forhuman survival, such as water supply, weremet through efficient non-politicized utilitiesmanagement and cross-subsidies, chargingthose with higher incomes much higher ratesthan the poor. Almost half of Bogotá, a city ofseven million people at 2,600 meters altitude,grew spontaneously and illegally, often onmountain slopes that are hard to reach Yet 99per cent of the population now have cleanwater on tap at home.

Slum improvement, with highcommunity participation, was made apriority. Improvements included propertytitles; quality nurseries and schools; parks;and public spaces proposed, designed andbuilt by communities financed by themunicipality but contracted with communityorganizations.

The goal, however, must be not toimprove slums, but to avoid them. In Bogotáwe created a city-owned company thatacquires land around the city and urbanizes itwell. Large parcels of land are assigned toprivate developers who are given a maximumof two years to build and sell houses at lowpre-arranged prices. Most land around cities

should be part of land banks, assuring lowcost housing in quality urban environmentsso as to avoid slums

We went beyond meeting the basics ofsurvival to begin implementing a differentmodel from the one presented by advancedcities. Car use was restricted, with 40 percent of them forced to be off the streets duringsix peak hours every day. We explicitly saidthat peak-hour traffic jams were not aproblem, but a useful tool to promote high-density urban development and the use ofpublic transport. In response to a referendum,the first Thursday in February each year wasdecreed to be car-free, with everybody havingto get to work by public transport, bicycles oron foot. Tens of thousands of cars – whichused to park on bays carved out of sidewalks– were removed, and hundreds of kilometersof wide, well-lit tree-lined sidewalks werebuilt.

Since 1982 the main streets of Bogotáhave been closed to traffic on Sundays so thatbicyclists and joggers can enjoy them. Weextended the closures to 120 kilometers ofroads for seven hours: every Sunday morethan 1.5 million people come out to use them.More than 350 kilometers of protectedbicycle ways were built; as a result bicyclingrose from almost nothing to 4.1 per cent ofthe city’s population. It goes beyondnumbers. A low income helmeted cyclist

HighACHIEVEMENTSENRIQUE PEÑALOSA describes how a green revolutionbegan building a different type of developing country cityin one of the world’s highest capitals

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riding on a protected bikeway symbolises thata citizen on a US$ 30 bicycle is as importantas one in a US$30.000 automobile.

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Urban highways costing hundreds of millionsof dollars, proposed by a Japanese agency,were rejected. A 32 kilometer greenway withbikeways was put alongside a creek whereone of them was to have been built; it linkedlow and high income neighborhoods andserved as a daily transport corridor for tens ofthousands of bicyclists. Similarly a 15 meterwide tree-lined pedestrian street, 17kilometers long, was built through lowincome neighborhoods in another part of thecity. The goal is to create a pedestrian-and-bicycle-only network hundreds of kilometerslong, which will make the city more pleasantand humane.

We rejected costly rail systems, andinstead put in operation a Bus Rapid Transitsystem, inspired by one successfullypioneered in Curitiba, Brazil. We called itTransMilenio, to avoid the negativeconnotations of buses. It is boarded at stationswith doors opening as the buses arrive: it isaccessible for wheel chairs: and it providesspeeds and capacities similar to rail systems.It moves more than 1 million passengersdaily – and more passengers per

kilometer/hour than most rail systems. Otherlines will soon be in operation and, by 2020,85 per cent of the then nine million strongcity’s population will live within 500 metersof a station.

A referendum proposing the banning ofall private car use during the peak morningand afternoon hours, beginning in 2015,achieved a majority vote – but failed toachieve the 33.3 per cent voter participationneeded to become mandatory. However thiscontinues to be a goal for many of usconcerned with our city’s future.

PPrroovviiddiinngg qquuaalliittyy

If safe mobility for those not having a motor-vehicle is a right, the providing qualitysidewalks and protected bicycle-ways on allroads is not an option, but a basic element ofdemocracy.

Restricting car use and creating a morepedestrian friendly city is an end in itself. Butit also frees resources that would otherwise bespent on constructing and maintaining roadinfrastructure. In Bogotá this allowed us tobuild a formidable number of qualitynurseries, schools, libraries and parks.

Some question the importance of publicpedestrian spaces in a poor developing citywith many unmet needs. Yet it is precisely insuch societies that they are most important.

During work time a high level executive andthe lowest paid employee are equallysatisfied; they meet work companions, douseful tasks. It is when they leave work thatenormous differences arise. Upper-incomepersons go to large homes, often withgardens, and have access to clubs, countryhouses, vacations, restaurants, and concerts.But low income citizens and their childrenhave no leisure time alternative to television– except for public pedestrian spaces. Soproviding quality ones must be high on theagenda of a democratic government.

With economic development lowerincome groups get goods which once seemedinaccessible to them, such as cell-phones,televisions, audio equipment. But they willnever have access to green spaces unlessgovernments act judiciously. Governmentsmust make sure a large reserve of park land iscreated, and should never allow waterfrontsto be private and exclusive.

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Public space is also space for equality. Whendifferent people meet, they are usuallyseparated by their hierarchies, such as whenthe apartment owner meets the doorman andthe Financial Vice-President meets thewoman who serves coffee. But in publicspace everyone meets as equals: this isparticularly powerful in highly unequaldeveloping societies. A good city must haveat least one great public space – one somarvelous that it is frequented even by therich. By contrast, a city is sick when shoppingmalls replace public space as the place tomeet, and when tourists are referred to themwhen they ask for a place to go to walk andsee people.

Most developing country cities are notconstructing quality environments. Manyhave no vision of their future: too many ofthose which believe they do, onlyunquestioningly envisage a version of atraditional advanced city. Bogotá suffers frommost of the ills that affect developing cities.We have not yet solved all our problems,achieved a new vision, or even been freedfrom the risk of a relapse to the traditionalmodel. But at least we began discussing somefundamentals ■

Enrique Peñalosa is a former mayor ofBogotá. Barred from immediate re-election by constitutional norms, he is nowa consultant to many developing worldcities.

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Life At the TopDDUUSSTTYY GGEEDDGGEE describes howenvironment and securityconcerns can lead to fruitfulcooperation, even in one of theworld’s most turbulent regions

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PPeople rarely lift their eyes skywardas they walk along a busy street.But if they were to fly over most of

the world’s cities, and look down, theywould see a bland patchwork of blacksand greys – their roofs. We can harnessthese uniform deserts to our, and theplanet’s, advantage.

Thousands of years ago people insuch places as Norway and WesternIreland realised that placing turf on roofsprovided simple and effective insulation.Today green roofs are commonplace onbuildings from private houses tohospitals, factories and office blocks incountries like Germany and Switzerland.

There is growing interest in theNetherlands, Sweden, Denmark andHungary. North American cities fromPortland to Atlanta are promoting theiruse, while the city of Kawasaki in Japanhas long been greening buildings toreduce air pollution and reduce the urbanheat island effect

GGrreeeenniinngg bbuuiillddiinngg

Modern interest in green roofs began inGermany in the 1970s, stemming fromobservations of vegetation growingspontaneously on traditional ones. Theyare now a legal requirement in manyareas. Under planning law, green spacemust be replaced when newdevelopments are constructed, and therefinancial incentives for green roofs. Theyare seen as providing a service to citiessuch as Karlsruhe and Stuttgart byholding water and letting it evaporateback into the atmosphere, reducing theimpact of storm water on drainagesystems and the incidence of flash floods.

This is also one of the main drivingforces for installing green roofs in NorthAmerica, where increased hard

landscaping in cities and channelling ofrivers have made floods a major problem.In Portland, Oregon, the metropolitanauthority is considering a major greenroof policy partly to help maintain goodwater quality in the Willamette River,thus protecting its salmon population.

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Yet retaining storm water is only one ofthe multiple benefits that green roofsbring to cities. They also, for example,

Their effectiveness maybe limited in wet winterconditions, but insummer they can helpreduce the need for airconditioning

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Our Planet

provide insulation by acting as thermalbarriers. Their effectiveness may belimited in wet winter conditions, but insummer they can help reduce the needfor air conditioning. The City of Chicagohas estimated that they could save in theregion of US$100m a year in this way.

Peak demand for electricity could bereduced by 720 megawatts, it believes,reducing carbon dioxide emissions:rising summer temperatures, due to theurban heat island effect – and aconnected increase in air pollution – canalso be moderated. Atlanta is alsopromoting their use, greening the roof ofits City Hall as a showcase. Starting withjust 3,000 square feet of green roof space,it expects this area to multiply tenfoldwithin the next few years.

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In Switzerland, green roofs have beendeveloped to protect biodiversity.Construction law in Basel requires thatall new flat roofed buildings are coveredin some form of vegetation: officialguidelines stress the importance of roof

gardens for endangered beetles andbirds.

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Five big green roofs at the Moos filtrationplant on the outskirts of Zurich, built in1913, are now one of the last remainingexamples of central Swiss wet grassland.They are so important for orchids that thefederal government is consideringclassifying them as a national park! Andnew platform roofs at the city’s railwaystation have been designed to resemble astony desert, to help conserve a rarelizard. Concern for biodiversity is alsodriving growing interest in the UK, whichhas shown little interest in using greenroofs for ameliorating surges of stormwater, despite the pressure these placeon London’s antiquated drainage system,releasing sewage into the Thames. Up tonow the roofs have been seen onlyappropriate for ‘alternative’ orenvironmental establishments, but theyare beginning to now come into their ownthrough a plan by the London BiodiversityPartnership to protect a rare bird, the

black redstart. Over 250,000 squaremetres of green roofs are planned toprovide habitat for it, at such notabledevelopment sites as King’s Cross railwaystation, Battersea power station, and theGreenwich Peninsula. And a leadinginsect conservation organisation, Buglife,is pushing for their use at a newdevelopment at Shellhaven, CanveyIsland, an area particularly important forrare insects.

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Good green roofs can not only amelioratestorm water discharges, air pollution,noise and energy use, but turn cities intorefuges for rare species endangered byindustrial farming in the countryside.Perhaps our cities’ roofscapes will ceaseto be deserts and become uniquewildernesses, providing havens fornature as well as making healthier andbetter places for people to live ■

Dusty Gedge is co- founder of Livingroofs.org

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E4W stands for Eco 4 the World, a 13-part, half-hourtelevision magazine show launched at MIPTV inCannes in April. UNEP and the United Nations

Development Programme are partnering with theSingapore-based production house, Big Durian,together with the Singapore Economic DevelopmentBoard, to produce the multimedia show which will reachout to a young global audience, communicatingenvironmental ideas and messages through innovative,lively and interactive programming. Highlightingpositive stories, focusing on fun – and involving NobelPeace prizewinner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and starsSting, Alicia Keys, and Simple Plan – it will aim to createenvironmental awareness around the world.

BOOKS & PRODUCTS

Between 30 and 60 per cent of the people of most citiesin the developing world now live in shanty towns andslums. Empowering Squatter Citizen, edited by Diana

Mitlin and David Sattherthwaite, published by Earthscan,contains case studies of innovative government organisationsin Thailand, Mexico, Nicaragua and the Philippines andcommunity-driven processes in India, South Africa, Pakistanand Brazil which have been effective in reducing urbanpoverty by strengthening the organisations of the poor andhomeless.

The latest in a series of groundbreaking UNEPchildren's storybooks on environmental issues –Tina and the Green City – tells of a young North

American girl who, unhappy with her polluted city,organises an after-school club to try to make itcleaner andgreener.Though atfirst everyonelaughs at Tinaand herfriends, theyembark on astep-by-stepprogrammestarting withcleaning up the park across their street. Eventuallythe city is transformed and their initiative is emulatedthroughout the country. Written by Carole Douglis andillustrated by Adrienne Kennaway, it is the third bookin the series: one of the others, Theo and the GiantPlastic Ball, was featured in the New York Times inApril.

Tina and the Green City sells for US$8 and can be purchasedfrom UNEP’s online bookshop at: www.earthprint.com.

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The United States Environ-mental Protection Agency(USEPA) has selected

UNEP's Division of Technology,Industry and Economics (DTIE)for the 2005 StratosphericOzone Protection Award inrecognition of the work of theOzonAction Branch, the firstUN agency programme ever tohave received it. The prestigiousaward – a collectiveachievement of DTIE’s Com-pliance Assistance Programme

delivered through its Parisoffice and through UNEP'sregional offices - werepresented in Washington, D.C.on 4 May. USEPA praised the“leadership and innovation ofthe OzonAction Programme”and said it has “benefited wellover 140 countries through itsunique regional networks ofNational Ozone Units andglobal information clearinghouse.”J

apan's official Prime Ministerial residence has beentransformed into a model eco-home, as a symbol ofthe country's determination to reduce emissions of

greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol. Therefurbished four-storey building is the first in the countryto be partially powered by fuel cells, while its roof iscovered with solar panels. But, while facing towards thefuture, it has also kept in touch with the past: it includes atraditional teahouse, complete with tatami mats, lookingout on a Japanese garden.

One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our ChangingEnvironment illustrates – though a combination ofcurrent and historical

satellite images, groundphotographs and narrativebased on extensive scientificevidence – how humans havealtered their surroundings andcontinue to make observableand measurable changes tothe global environment.Produced by UNEP incooperation with NASA, the USGeological Survey, and theUniversity of Maryland, itunderscores the importance ofdeveloping, harnessing andsharing technologies that helpprovide deeper understandingof the dynamics of environmental change.

One Planet, Many People Atlas of Our ChangingEnvironment can be purchased from UNEP’s online bookshopat: www.earthprint.com. Price:US$150 (332pgs, large format).

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FFooccuuss OOnn YYoouurr WWoorrllddGold Prize Winners

Since 1991 UNEP, with the sponsorship of Canon, has held four highly successful ‘Focus on Your World’ photographiccompetitions on the environment.

This year’s winning images are highlighted in the UN Pavilion at EXPO 2005, and will be on display in San Francisco as partof the World Environment Day celebrations (1 - 5 June). The gold prize winners depicted here were chosen from over 32,000entries from around the world.

Buddhism to Conserve/ Thailand Chamaiporn Pongpanich, Thailand

General Category Youth Category

Children’s Category

Wildlife Refugees/ Tamil Nadu, India Reshmi Chandra Senan, India

Rich and Poor on Top of the Old Garbage Dump ofMexico City / MexicoMonica Alexandra Terrazas Galvan, Mexico

Our Planet

BLACK SEA, GREEN CITY?

OOn the shores of the 'bluest of blue' Black Sea stands the extraordinary cityof Sevastopol, - my home. In its relatively short, 222 year, history, it hasknown its share of conflict and war, but has always been renowned for its

resilience and patriotism. The days of great battles are long gone and its oldchessboard grid of white streets and boulevards has made way for"Khrushchevite" slums. The sleepy navy base with tree lined avenues - wherelocals and tourists could once breathe clean air and bathe in the crystal clearwaters of one of Sevastopol's 40 bays - is no more.

The water in its bays, once so blue and clear, is no longer clean and - truth betold - often smells quite badly.

The deterioration of the marine environment which so affects this city has leadto a dramatic fall in the number of marine organisms at all levels - frombacteria to fish and dolphins. Oil spills, and the not inconsiderable level ofpollution from the city itself, have helped turn the water murky and drivendown oxygen levels. Things are so bad that even mussels, which are generallywell adapted to living in dirty water, are suffering. Not to mention sturgeon andcaviar!

And what about tourism? It is quite common for at least two public beaches toclose for hygiene reasons at the height of the tourist season. The water on thesebeaches can only support dangerous bacteria and viruses, no other life.

Of course I am too young to teach those big people in their ministries how to dotheir jobs. To be completely honest, I'm not even sure how to tackle theproblem. Maybe the removal of the Black Sea Fleet which is based inSevastopol might be a start. This would also be a good thing from a aestheticpoint of view: the view from Komsomol Square down to the South Bay wouldno longer be obscured by submarines and destroyers.

Also, the people of Sevastopol should do the right thing and pay theirmunicipal taxes in full and on time. Maybe then pipes will be less likely to rustand burst, spilling their unsavoury contents all over our city and into the sea.

Some international efforts are under way to clean up our Black Sea, but it willbe a long time before we see the results of these plans. In the meantime we canonly hope that the preservation of truly green cities on the Black Sea coast willbe an issue not only for biologists and ecologists.

Maybe if we care about these issues more, the world's most talented artists,writers and scientists will again flock to the Crimean Riviera. People withopen friendly faces will walk the white streets of Sevastopol, the city will onceagain drown in a sea of green and the water in the city's bays will be as crystalclear as the air they breathe.

Halyna Alomova - 17 years old, Ukraine

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