New UNEP report puts cities at the forefront of sustainable development

Investing in sustainable infrastructure and resource efficient technologies are key to reducing poverty and driving economic growth while reducing the impact on the environment, says a new UNEP report launched today in Nairobi, Kenya.

“To date, the trend towards urbanisation has been accompanied by increased pressure on the environment and growing numbers of urban poor,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, at the report launch, during UN-Habitat’s 24th Governing Council Session. “But unique opportunities exist for cities to lead the greening of the global economy by increasing resource productivity and innovation, while achieving major financial savings and addressing environmental challenges.”

The study, City-level decoupling: urban resource flows and the governance of infrastructure transitions, says a much greater effort is needed to support new and improved infrastructure for water, energy, transport, waste and other sectors–generally located in and around cities–to wean the world off unsustainable consumption patterns, and avoid serious economic and environmental implications for future generations.

Encompassing the issues of investment, development strategies, data collection on resource use, target-setting on resource efficiency, and promoting procurement of green technology, the report strongly emphasises the role of cities and local governments, as well as their connections to national governments and the private sector, in sustainable development.

“ICLEI has dedicated agendas on green urban economy and resource efficient cities,” said Gino van Begin, Secretary General, ICLEI. “They are also the themes of the Global Town Hall recently held at Hannover Messe, where we facilitated a session on supercities looking for low-carbon, low-risk, eco-friendly industrial solutions to come into dialogues with businesses that provide innovative and sustainable technologies and services. We are also currently collaborating with UNEP on a global survey on resource efficiency in cities.”

According to Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-Habitat, transiting to cheaper renewable energy is a worthwhile investment in an age of rising energy prices. “Older cities may have to retrofit and replace inefficient infrastructure into which they have been locked for decades to achieve decoupling but newer and expanding cities have the advantage of flexibility,” said Clos. “They can ‘get it right’ the first time.”

The report features 30 case studies showing how emissions can be cut by 40 percent through introducing energy efficiency measures in public buildings. One example is Cape Town, South Africa, that is saving over 6,500 tonnes of carbon every year by re-fitting low-income housing with solar water heaters and efficient lighting.