During the meeting, organized by the Group of Friends for Sustainable Cities and UN-Habitat, panelists presented examples of sustainable urban development from around the world, including Singapore's Livability Framework and New York City's PlanNYC.
23 May 2012: The High-level meeting on “Sustainable Cities: Rio+20 and Beyond” focused on the role of cities in achieving sustainable development and provided examples of sustainable urban development.
The meeting, which was organized by the Group of Friends for Sustainable Cities, in collaboration with the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), was held on 21 May 2012, in New York, US. During the meeting, participants heard a range of presentations, including one from the Brazilian representative, who presented the perspective of the host city for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio +20). Another panelist highlighted the importance for sustainable future development of creating resilient cities, stressing the need to pro-actively plan cities. Other panelists discussed: the future of cities; and modes of participation in sustainable urban development.
Panelists also presented examples of sustainable urban development from around the world. A panelist described Singapore’s Livability Framework, which is a guideline for sustainable development created from lessons learned from the country’s process of becoming a “livable city.” Another example provided was of New York City’s PlanNYC, the city’s plan to create a sustainable urban future by 2030, through urban policy. And finally, Professor Buckley brought the scope out to talk about what the future of cities may look like globally, and the schools of thought that have informed future speculation about cities in the past. [UN-HABITAT Press Release]