Resilience and preparedness are vital conditions for safeguarding the future of our cities. Stefan Wagner, Head of Germany’s Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability in Bonn, illuminates the city’s new role as an MCR2030 Global Resilience Hub.
In a world beset by multiple crises, mayors are multitaskers, crisis managers and frontline responders – and crises never wait in line. Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn and ICLEI Co-Chair for Climate Action on circular cities and Bonn’s promising path to becoming zero-waste.
Evolving cross-border cooperation shows that trans-boundary action can help individual cities address local challenges. Emana Nsikan-George from Climate Alliance highlights the development of decentralised municipal cooperation and provides a promising example from Uganda and Germany.
Why tackle challenges alone, when there is so much to be gained from working together? How global peer learning strengthens cities in their role as leading actors of urban change. By the South African – German City Peer Learning Network.
In cities around the world, many people come together daily to use public transport – a risky endeavor in times of a pandemic. The Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative TUMI takes a look at protective measures of urban public transport systems around the world.
Last Thursday, the tenth World Urban Forum came to a close in Abu Dhabi. "Cities of Opportunities – Connecting Culture and Innovation" was the forum's theme, making for a week full of exchange and discussion on the various facets of sustainable urbanisation. URBANET spoke to the Lord Mayor of the German city of Dortmund on his key takeaways from the conference.
In Halle, a collective of urban planners, teachers, artists, students, and volunteers painted a whole district with street art and graffiti, demonstrating that these techniques can lead to positive social, cultural, and economic impact in shrinking and neglected areas.
Across Germany, municipal governments are increasingly engaged in sustainable development. Thus, they are playing a key role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, which will be assessed at the High-level Political Forum 2019. Robert Böhnke from the German Council for Sustainable Development outlines the learning processes that led and lead to municipalities' increased engagement.
While the SDGs represent truly global goals, their implementation relies on local efforts. The initiative “SDG Indicators for Municipalities” by various stakeholders in Germany offers an extremely useful tool that allows to measure progress while paying attention to the specifics of individual municipalities.
Today, the High Level Political Forum for the implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2030 ends in New York City. On this occasion, Mayor Peter Kurz explains how the city of Mannheim, Germany is working towards implementing Agenda 2030 locally. Political leaders, the city administration and the citizens are collaborating to create an inclusive, citizen-oriented city.
The factory and power plant chimneys which once belched smoke, blighting our urban landscapes, have largely disappeared. Our rivers are no longer open sewers, and quality of urban life has improved immeasurably. Where centres of heavy industry once polluted the environment, there are now eco-friendly cities – like Essen, the European Green Capital. So is it all good in Germany? This question was also discussed at the Annual Conference of the German Council for Sustainable Development on 29 May.
In his contribution to URBANET, Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller outlines his expectations and hopes for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
In these days, climate and Bonn are thought together. As a matter of fact, adaptation to climate change, building resilience and dealing with loss and damages will challenge the world just as much as the necessity of mitigating global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius or less. Bonn is a hotspot for the joint efforts to get there. Already this 8 May, the Bonn Climate Talks will bring parties, observers and stakeholders together in the city at the Rhine.
In a four-part series, URBANET takes a closer look at specific projects that contribute to making cities more liveable. This fourth and last part describes how a Tanzanian and a German municipality partnered up to contribute to climate protection - and to also collaborate on other issues.
If the New Urban Agenda is to be a success, it is of vital importance that cities form partnerships and learn from each other. Such activities are already under way: in this article, URBANET presents an example of municipal knowledge sharing between cities in the Maghreb region and cities in Germany.
