Facing
the Environmental Challenge
Urban regions are the
world's dominant population centers and the main growth engines of the global
economy. For effective governance, citizenship, urban planning, and economic
strategy in metropolitan areas, every level of government and the private and
civic sectors must collaborate across jurisdictional boundaries. Public policy
and urban management today generally do not correspond to the reality of
metropolitan regions as fundamental units of market activity, social
interaction, culture, transportation systems, land-use planning, and
environmental protection. Many people across the globe are now economic
"citizens" of metropolitan regions, but in most cases they are politically
disenfranchised within these dynamic and rapidly growing urban agglomerations.
Even stable public institutions are increasingly unable to cope with the vast
array of problems confronting the entire urban region, and metropolitan
residents are generally disconnected at the regional level from governmental
decision-making, democratic participation, and citizenship rights and
responsibilities. Global Urban Development directly addresses this 21st century
challenge by developing cooperative partnerships among the public, private, and
civic sectors in urban regions. These partnerships design and implement
metropolitan economic strategies to generate increased prosperity; metropolitan
land-use and transportation strategies to invest in infrastructure, manage
growth, and enhance the urban environment; and metropolitan community
development strategies that promote livable neighborhoods with improved
housing, education, health, safety, and quality of life. Through effective and
inclusive metropolitan strategic partnerships, urban regions can become more
economically productive, technologically innovative, socially equitable, and
environmentally sustainable.
Thanks
to GUD Vice Chair Peter Hall, Global Urban Development was included in a
European Commission-funded research consortium, headed by the Royal Institute
of Technology in Stockholm, to analyze the urban development impacts of the
enlargement of the European Union to include eight new countries from central
and eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, where GUD’s Prague
headquarters was located. During June
2003, GUD hosted one of the first meetings of this multinational research
consortium. This memorable three-day
meeting included a public lecture by Sir Peter Hall attended by more than 100
invited guests (his speech/report was published in the 2005 inaugural issue of GUD Magazine as “The
World’s Urban Systems: A European Perspective”),
and a delightful celebratory dinner on the night that the Czech Republic
officially voted to join the European Union.
GUD
actively participated in the Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization together
with the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), UN Development Program
(UNDP), UN Advisory Committee on Local Authorities, ICLEI-Local Governments for
Sustainability, World Bank, Cities Alliance, Asian Development Bank,
Inter-American Development Bank, Metropolis, United Cities and Local
Governments (UCLG), and numerous other organizations. This Coalition organized the highly
successful five-day Local Government Session, attended by more than 1,000 local
officials from many different countries, at the UN World Summit on Sustainable
Development (“Earth Summit”) in Johannesburg, South Africa during August
2002. Two GUD Board members, Kaarin Taipale and Nicholas You,
were key leaders of the Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization, with Kaarin representing ICLEI and Nick representing UN-Habitat.
This
GUD committee completed a major action-oriented research project funded by the
Mistra Foundation (the Government of Sweden’s Foundation for Strategic
Environmental Research). The project
identified the key issues, challenges, institutional capacity, innovative
policies, best practices, and other major trends related to successfully
improving the future of environmentally and economically sustainable urban
development throughout the world, including climate change and additional vital
environmental concerns. Global Urban
Development was deeply involved in this collaborative effort. Henrik Nolmark
served as the overall project coordinator, Marc Weiss and Nola-Kate Seymoar as the coordinators for the US and Canada, Belinda
Yuen as the coordinator for Asia, and Wendy Sarkissian
as the coordinator for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. Members of the committee on Facing the Environmental Challenge along with other members
of GUD’s global network were involved in this project on the global future of
sustainable urban development.
The committee completed a
second project which was a spin-off from the Mistra Foundation research. This project involved working with the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund to organize a meeting on “The Economic Benefits of
Climate Action” held at Pocantico Hills, NY during
November 26-28, 2007. The meeting
brought together US leaders from state and local government, economic
development professionals, business executives, environmental leaders, and
scholars to discuss connecting actions to prevent climate change and promote
urban environmental sustainability directly to strategies for generating
economic prosperity and enhancing quality of life. Marc Weiss collaborated with
Michael Northrop of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Karl Ulrich of the
University of Pennsylvania to plan this event.
In
addition, GUD signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Chinese Government in
October 2009 to give strategic advice for the US-China Mayors Sustainable
Cities Program, particularly with respect to Sustainable Economic Development
Strategies. Thanks to C. S. Kiang, Jiang Mingjun, and
Lawrence Bloom for connecting us.
GUD
has actively participated in the Partnership for Sustainable Low Carbon
Transport (SLoCaT), a stakeholder coalition of NGOs
such as ITDP and EMBARQ, private corporations, UN agencies, and development
finance institutions. The SLoCat Partnership’s Rio + 20 Campaign recently secured
commitments from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and six other
multilateral development banks to invest $175 billion (USD) in sustainable
urban transportation systems in developing countries over the next decade, with
16 additional resource commitments from other organizations.
GUD
Vice Chair Nicky Gavron is working with Professor
Lord Nicholas Stern, Phillipp Rode, Dimitri Zenghelis, Karl Baker, and their faculty and senior
research colleagues at the London School of Economics on The Economics of Green
Cities Program, a collaborative global research project analyzing the economics
of sustainable urban development, with an initial focus on Copenhagen,
Portland, and Stockholm.
Also,
GUD serves on the Steering Committee of the United Nations Sustainable
Development Knowledge Partnership, established by the UN Department of Economic
and Social Affairs.
GUD's
program committees on Facing the Environmental Challenge is actively
collaborating with GUD’s program
committee on Generating Sustainable Economic Development. GUD will work with sub-national governments
and local authorities worldwide – states,
provinces, regions, districts, counties, cities, towns, villages, and
neighborhoods – to strengthen their economies by improving their
environments. By actively promoting
innovation, efficiency, and conservation in the use and reuse of all natural
and human resources, places can increase jobs, raise incomes, grow businesses,
and enhance their overall productivity and competitiveness. This approach serves as the basic framework
for Sustainable Economic Development Strategies. James Nixon and Marc Weiss recently
co-authored a two-page article, The Global Future of Green Capitalism, and
a 32-page
manual, published by GUD, entitled Sustainable Economic Development Strategies,
explaining in detail how places can engage in such environmentally friendly
initiatives to generate economic, business, employment, and community
development.
GUD has
worked with places including San Antonio, San Jose/Silicon Valley, Southwest
Florida, Metropolitan Portland, Metropolitan Denver, and the State of Delaware,
using our four-part framework for Sustainable Economic Development Strategies
to save money, create jobs, raise incomes, grow businesses, and improve the
environment. Recently GUD completed a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy
for Sarasota County, Florida. This initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of
Energy, is a strategic plan for Sarasota County to become a “Center for Innovation in Energy and
Sustainability.” During June 7-8, 2011 in Curitiba, Brazil,
the Brazil and U.S. Governments and the Energy and Climate Partnership for the
Americas held a conference on “Planning
for Sustainable Economic Development Across the Americas.” GUD
worked with the American Planning Association, the City of Curitiba, and the
U.S. State Department to organize this historic international meeting exploring
the potential benefits of state/provincial, regional, and local Sustainable
Economic Development Strategies from Argentina to Canada. The GUD team
advising, supporting, and collaborating on Sustainable Economic Development
include Rosa Alegria, Jobeda
Ali, Edward Blakely, Lawrence Bloom, Ian Bromley, John Cleveland, Aser Cortines, Sarah Dimson, Daniely
Votto Fontoura, Nicky Gavron, Emilio
Haddad, Peter Hall, Ken Heatherington, Paul Krutko, Jaime Lerner, Rodrigo
Loures, Richard Lindberg, Tony Manwaring, Andreia Marin Martins, James Nixon, Marta Nunes da Costa, Emilia Queiroga, Elaine Yamashita
Rodriguez, Tom Roper, Nathan Sandwick, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, Al Victors, Ramiro Wahrhaftig, Marc Weiss, David Wilmoth,
Cynthia Wilson, and Larry Zinn.
Facing the
Environmental Challenge Committee
Co-Chairs: Habiba Al Marashi, Mary Jane Ortega, and Tom Roper
Grace Akumu
Rosa Alegria
Jobeda Ali
Michael Arwas
Barbara Askins
Rob Atkinson
Uri Avin
Mart Bailey
Lynne Barker
Andrea Bassi
Antonella Battaglini
Rob Bennett
Scott Bernstein
Sergio Besserman Vianna
Vinayak Bharne
Olzod Bhum-Yalagch
Claire Blanchard
Lawrence Bloom
Ian Bromley
Scott Brook
Allison Brooks
Lester Brown
Nancy Brown
Rinaldo Brutoco
David Burwell
Tess Cacciatore
Peter Calthorpe
Nancy Carter
Tim Campbell
Ann Chan
Michael Chang
Don Chen
John Cleveland
Andres Coca-Stefaniak
Victor Cohen
Rick Cole
Helene Connor
Thais Corral
Naomi Davis
Susan Davis
Dianne
Dillon-Ridgley
Hank Dittmar
Michael Donovan
Petr Dostal
Ladislau Dowbor
Peter Droege
James Duncan
Will Duggan
Reese Fayde
Seth Fearey
Bruce Ferguson
Ismael
Fernandez-Mejia
Morel Fourman
Robert Freling
Sharon Friel
Tsuyoshi Fujita
John Fullerton
Yaakov Garb
James Garrison
Nicky Gavron
John
Geesman
Laurie Geller
David Gershon
Santosh Ghosh
Elizabeth Gibbons
Ernesto Gil
Herbert Girardet
Brendan Gleeson
Parris Glendening
Alex Grayson
Eduardo Guimaraes
David Haenke
Rafal Hejne
Hazel Henderson
Julie Henry
Elliott Hoffman
Walter Hook
Daniel Hoornweg
Paul Hughes
Curtis Johnson
Calestous Juma
Daniel Kammen
Allen Kearns
Michael Kennedy
Ashok
Khosla
C. S. Kiang
Sean Kidney
Jeroen Klink
Wilfried Kreisel
Paul Krutko
Robert Lang
Keith Laughlin
Christopher Leinberger
Florian Lennert
Jaime Lerner
Mary Lewin
Richard Lindberg
Rodrigo Loures
Steven
Lovink
L. Hunter Lovins
Richard Lumsden
Adalberto Maluf
Azim Manji
Tony Manwaring
David Martin
Andreia Marin Martins
Rachel Massaro
Tom McCawley
Stephanie McClellan
Michael McCulloch
Cynthia McEwen
Jane McRae
Dale Medearis
Miguel Mendonca
Cesar Menezes
Peter Merry
Jiang Mingjun
Ricardo Montezuma
Dan Montgomery
Elizabeth Moule
Lisa Nisenson
James Nixon
Henrik Nolmark
Geoffrey Nwaka
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
Lora O’Connor
Collin O’Mara
Haixiao Pan
Kathryn Papp
Julia Parzen
Doug Payne
Michael Peck
Neal Peirce
Morgan Pillay
Christina Carvalho Pinto
Scott Polikov
Deependra Prashad
Emilia Queiroga
Craig Raborn
Bill Radulovich
Paul Ray
Michael Replogle
Graham Richard
Jackie Roberts
Susan Rochford
Renato Romano
Maria Rosario
Catherine Ross
Rick Rybeck
Kendra Sandoval
Nathan Sandwick
David Satterthwaite
Allan Savory
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
Marybeth Schubert
Igor Semenov
Nola-Kate Seymoar
Jigar Shah
Molly O’Meara
Sheehan
Gholam Shiran
Nick Silver
Adele Simmons
Ranjit Sivaprakasam
Jasper Sky
Daniel Solomon
Jeffrey Soule
John Spears
W. Cecil Steward
Sean Sweeney
Richard Swett
Ludek Sykora
Kaarin Taipale
Sein-Way Tan
Sophia Trapp
Martin Tull
Steve Viederman
Al Victors
Daniely Votto
Ramiro Wahrhaftig
Al Washa
Jessica Wasserman
Michael Wegener
Lisa Van Well
Wayne Wescott
Dave Wetzel
Gina Whitehill-Baziuk
Eva Willmann de Donlea
Darcy Stallings
Winslow
Michelle Wyman
Robert Yaro
Nicholas You
Sun Younian
Belinda Yuen
Dimitri Zenghelis
Susan Zielinski
Larry Zinn