Transformative local climate action is essential as cities both significantly contribute to climate change and suffer from its consequences. A new study explores how different multi-level climate governance instruments can support the realisation of local climate mitigation and adaptation.
In Lagos, Nigeria, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are common in urban planning projects. But whom do they benefit: people or profit? Dr Taibat Lawanson argues that the city's urban development strategy focusses too much on PPPs and thus favours profit over people – and calls to the state government to shift its focus back to a policy that benefits all citizens.
Brazil's social housing programme Minha Casa, Minha Vida prides itself on having delivered an enormous amount of affordable housing. But putting a roof over people's heads is not sufficient if the settlements are located on the far outskirts of a city, depriving residents of access to urban resources, claims Clarisse Cunha Linke.
“Minha Casa, Minha Vida” (My House, My Life) is Brazil’s largest affordable housing project to this day. Priscila Pacheco describes the buildings’ sustainability features that benefit the residents and the environment.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues are a highly efficient tool towards achieving the goals set in the Paris Agreement. This can be seen in examples from Togo, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Africa, and Ecuador, writes Jisun Hwang from the ICLEI.
A radical reform of Khartoum’s housing policy is required to improve the living conditions of slum dwellers. For this, we need to examine the socio-economic situation of the urban poor and of those who live in the city’s informal settlements.
For three days San Francisco became a climate change hub, filled with conferences and workshops. Still the Global Climate Action Summit turned out to be focused on the cities of the Global North.
URBANET’s latest infographic series provides you with interesting facts and figures about urbanisation in Brazil.
This month, representatives of subnational governments are getting together at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. They are hoping to push national governments to adopt more ambitious climate targets.
URBANET spoke to Shri Saranyan Krishnan about the particularities of urban land governance in India’s state of Tamil Nadu.
Lagos is suffering from severe water shortage due to profit-oriented politics. Akinbode Oluwafemi points out the conflicts and problems around the privatisation of the water sector and offers alternative solutions for one of the world’s most populous cities.
It is important to think locally when implementing the SDGs, argues Christopher Dekki. Countries in Asia-Pacific, such as Laos and Sri Lanka, are examples of this successful approach.
In an interview with URBANET, Emilia Saiz from UCLG presents her vision for the city network, talking about how the network can best represent local and regional governments in a democratic manner.
There has been consent in international debates that implementing the SDGs requires approaching them from a local perspective. In this very personal account, Alexis Gueu talks about the challenges the city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast is facing – and the urgent need for the municipality to develop urban governance structures to tackle these problems.
The issue of urbanisation is gaining attention and cities are increasingly recognised as having a crucial role to play in achieving sustainable development. However, urban development has yet to become an integral part of the global political agenda. URBANET talked to Ani Dasgupta, Global Director of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, about what needs to change to make urban development a political priority.
