Urban Planning Fundamental for Effective Climate Change -UN Habitat

Nasir Imam

29 June 2011

Climate change responses cannot be effective without adequate emphasis on local action at the city level. Dr. Joan Clos, the Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director, Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, stated this in Abuja during the launching of the Global Report on Human Settlements 2011: Cities and Climate Change.

He said city authorities can have an important level of influence over both greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change.

Clos said that with globalisation of Africa, the continent faces urban settlement and planning crisis, lack of access to health and sanitation that may also lead to humanitarian catastrophe. “There is huge difficulty in providing facilities and creating jobs. One of the issues Africa has to face is how to improve job opportunities and economy that requires a lot of political will. A lot of African governments realize that cities are liability as opposed to cities being assets, economy and wealth creation. Wealth generation requires organizing the cities in a way that creates wealth,” he said.

He explained that concentration of businesses and populations in cities generate efficiency and economic gains in some areas and urban centres, adding that demographic expansion is neither good nor bad in itself as outcomes can be positive or negative, depending on how it is spatially distributed and how the benefits of urban agglomeration is shared.

The UN-Habitat chief said:”In many countries, cities are sprawling over the land, mostly without proper infrastructure, and at a high price to the environment. But the highest price of this evolution in both the developed and developing world is the loss of urban value. A good share of the economies of agglomeration, or economies of urbanization, is lost in this process. This is especially worrisome in developing countries because they lose the opportunity to use the city as a factor of economic growth and job creation. In addition, this evolution of the form of the city presents a common feature, which is chronic congestion on one side, and excessive consumption of energy on the other.

“We need to move away from the pessimistic approach to the urban process to an optimistic point of view. The city and urban process should be seen as an asset and not as a liability. The city is a source of decent jobs and development, more equality, more opportunities for the young and more advancement of gender opportunities.”

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