Sixty years ago in San Francisco the founding members of the United
Nations pledged their determination to save future generations from
the scourge of war and promote human dignity and social progress. If,
as a global community, we are to fulfil these pledges, we will have
to address the issue of the world’s rapid urbanization. Too many
of today’s cities are breeding grounds for pollution, poverty,
disease and despair, but they need not be. With careful planning, our
cities can be flagships of sustainable development. This is our message
for World Environment Day 2005. Green Cities: Plan for the Planet! is
both a warning and a declaration of faith in our ability to turn the
expansion of urban centres to the benefit of all.
Wherever we look,
cities are crying out for answers. In the developing world, where urban
population growth is most pronounced, more than a billion people are
condemned to lives of poverty and ill-health because they are denied
the clean water, basic sanitation and adequate shelter that people in
the developed world often take for granted. Easing the burden of the
world’s poorest people will reap a double dividend, giving them
a foothold on the ladder to a better life and helping to protect the
environment on which we all depend.
Providing improved
sanitation to the slums of the world will protect freshwater resources—and
the sea into which all rivers flow. It will also help to save the lives
of many of the 6,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases
associated with lack of safe water and poor hygiene. Replacing wood
fires with more sustainable energy sources will not only preserve forests
but reduce air pollution. Respiratory disease is another of the world’s
great killers, and the developing world’s growing megacities have
the worst air quality. Air pollution can also be tackled by cleaning
up vehicle exhausts and preventing the release of toxic fumes from burning
plastic and other refuse by promoting appropriate waste collection and
disposal.
UNEP is working
in all these areas. Our energy and sustainable transport programmes
are addressing the environmental consequences of energy production and
use, from local air pollution to global warming. We are working to promote
environmentally sound technological solutions to freshwater use and
waste disposal, and our Sustainable Cities programme—in partnership
with UN-Habitat, our sister agency—is helping cities to plan and
manage their environment and share the lessons with local and national
governments worldwide.
The challenges presented
by growing urbanization are daunting, but they are not insurmountable.
For example, towns and cities—predominantly those in the developed
world—are currently responsible for most of the greenhouse gas
emissions that are causing climate change, mostly from cars, trucks
and power stations. These emissions can be drastically cut by a combination
of clean energy technologies coupled with enlightened city planning.
Imagine a city 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. That city
has become part of the solution, not the problem. It is the city of
the future. With the support of communities, businesses and, above all,
governments, it can also be the city of today.
The world is not
short of inspiring answers to the questions raised by the urban millennium.
Across the globe, and not just in the developed world, there are examples
of communities, businesses and governments working to redesign the metropolis.
Traffic-clogged city centres are being reclaimed for pedestrians, green
spaces preserved and expanded, recycling schemes promoted, environmentally
friendly buildings designed. These examples are like seeds. The challenge
is to nurture these seeds, propagate them, and spread them to the furthest
reaches of the globe.
Towns and cities
are humanity’s home—and its future. Making that a future
of peace, dignity and prosperity is the responsibility of all. It is
appropriate, then, that World Environment Day 2005 is being celebrated
in the birthplace of the organization founded to represent the interests
of everyone, from the most powerful to the most humble. We, the peoples
of the United Nations, need to look forward with hope. That hope lies
in Green Cities.
|
