Marking World Environment Day, UN urges creation of 'Green Cities' by Klaus Toepfer 4:19pm 6th Jun, 2005   5 June 2005    United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan heralded the celebration of World Environment Day as an opportunity for individuals, businesses and local and national governments to meet the challenges facing cities.    'Let us tap the great knowledge and natural dynamism of urban areas and create 'green cities' where people can raise their children and pursue their dreams in a well-planned, clean and healthy environment', Mr. Annan said in a message to those attending World Environment Day celebrations in San Francisco, California, and around the world.    In San Francisco, mayors and urban planning experts from around the globe plan to exchange ideas and sign a slate of UN-backed accords on environmental actions for cities. The signing of the ground-breaking actions collectively referred to as the Urban Environmental Accords Green Cities Declaration, will be the highlight of the UN Environmental Programme's (UNEP) commemoration of the Day.    In his message, Mr. Annan said that this year's theme, Green Cities: Plan for the Planet! highlights the challenges raised by one of the major trends of our times: the rapidly increasing proportion of people who are living in urban areas, more than 60 per cent by 2030.    Such rapid urbanization presents profound challenges, from poverty and unemployment to crime and drug addiction, he said. And in too many of the world's expanding towns and cities, environmental safeguards are few and planning is haphazard.    The world will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he said, unless environmental planning is incorporated into all aspects of urban management. While acknowledging that this poses a big challenge, he pointed out that the needed technologies and expertise already exist.    Echoing this theme, Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director said that with careful planning, cities can be flagships of sustainable development. In his message marking the Day, he called towns and cities humanity's home and its future.    The UNEP chief offered a vision of cities where buildings use solar power to help generate their own energy, and waste less because they use power-saving lighting and are well-insulated, where public transport is affordable and efficient, where vehicles pollute less because they are powered by electricity or hydrogen.    Such a city would become part of the solution, not the problem, he said. This city of the future with the support of communities, businesses and, above all, governments, could also be the city of today.    Mr. Toepfer also said cities in the developed world must set an example in areas such as the efficient use of energy and water, and must partner with developing world cities so they don't take a short-term 'dirty' development path, but a long-term sustainable one.    June 3, 2005    Rapid urbanisation a threat to the environment: UN, WWF. (InfoChangeIndia)    On the occasion of World Environment Day (June 5) environmental agencies stress the need to protect the environment against mindless urbanisation.    With more that half the world's population expected to be concentrated in urban areas by 2007, agencies like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) have expressed concern at the unregulated growth of cities. Speaking on the occasion of World Environment Day, June 5, they called for public action to meet the challenges of rapid urbanisation.    Green Cities: Plan for the Planet! - the theme of this years World Environment Day - highlighted the challenges posed by the rapidly increasing number of people living in urban areas.    As part of the UNEP's commemoration of the day, mayors and urban planning experts from all over the world met in San Francisco and, on June 6, signed a host of UN-backed accords on environmental action for cities. Called the Green Cities Declaration and the Urban Environmental Accords the plans call for increased environmental protection.    Both treaties focus on policies to expand affordable public transportation coverage for city residents within a decade, and increased access to safe drinking water. The Urban Environment Accords list 21 specific moves to make cities greener.    Cities are prolific users of natural resources and generators of waste. They produce most of the greenhouse gases that are causing changes in global climate let us tap the great knowledge and natural dynamism of urban areas and create green cities where people can raise their children and pursue their dreams in a well-planned, clean and healthy environment, said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.    Mayors participating in the ceremony came from Zurich, Istanbul, Melbourne, Seattle and dozens of other cities. Each set specific goals including up to 25% cuts in their citiesemissions of heat-trapping gases from cars, factories and power plants, by 2030. This is more ambitious than even the UN's Kyoto Protocol which seeks to cut emissions in developed nations by 5.2% from pre-1990 levels, by 2008-12.    Other targets for cities include ensuring that residents do not have to walk more than 500 metres in 2015 to reach public transport or an open space.    Klaus Toepfer, the UNEP's executive director offered a vision of cities “where buildings use solar power to help generate their own energy, and waste less because they use power-saving lighting and are well insulated, where public transport is affordable and efficient, where vehicles pollute less because they are powered by electricity or hydrogen.    According to UN estimates, the world's urban population reached 3 billion in 2003 and is expected to increase to 5 billion by 2030. It is projected to exceed 50% of the global population by 2007. This means that for the first time in history the world will have more urban residents than rural residents. Visit the related web page
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