#Goal11 City Levels Green, Amber or even Red

#Goal11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is thus incumbent upon states and societies to foster policies that help make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, as SDG number eleven states. In this cross-national comparison we look at two aspects that can be ascribed to this complex and multidimensional goal.

11_1

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The first indicator refers to air pollution and potential health stresses caused by high particulate matter concentrations. Figure 11.1 shows the respective proportion of the population whose exposure to “PM2.5” is above the WHO threshold of 15 micrograms per cubic meter. In 17 OECD member states, including several small countries such as Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Slovenia, but also some large countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the population is on average not exposed to particulate matter concentrations exceeding this threshold. However, in the other half of the OECD nations, the picture looks different. In the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Belgium, for instance, more than 50 percent of the population is on average exposed to particulate matter levels above the threshold. These three countries lag farthest behind. And also countries such as Germany (25 percent of the population), Switzerland (28 percent), the Netherlands (32 percent), Austria (32 percent), and Italy (35 percent) still have some catching up to do.

11_2

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The second indicator used here and portrayed in figure 11.2 refers to potential overcrowding as measured by the average number of rooms in a dwelling per person. The indicator thus Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is thus incumbent upon states and societies to foster policies that help make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, as SDG number eleven states. In this cross-national comparison we look at two aspects that can be ascribed to this complex and multidimensional goal. The first indicator refers to air pollution and potential health stresses caused by high particulate matter concentrations. Figure 11.1 shows the respective proportion of the population whose exposure to “PM2.5” is above the WHO threshold of 15 micrograms per cubic meter. In 17 OECD member states, including several small countries such as Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Slovenia, but also some large countries such Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable 11.1 Particulate matter provides some information on housing conditions in terms of space. The top five countries in this respect are Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Australia, and Belgium, where the respective room per person ratio is between 2.3 and 2.5. The midfi eld comprises a number of countries with on average 1.6 to 1.8 rooms per person. Countries such as Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Portugal, and Switzerland belong to this group. At the bottom of the league table, however, we find several countries where a person has – on average – only one room at his or her disposal: Mexico (1.0), Turkey, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary (all 1.1).

Further indicators which could be relevant to this goal include, but are not limited to, widespread access to public transport or the number of people killed in road accidents. These domains are particularly relevant outside the OECD nations since 90 percent of global road deaths, for instance, occur in low- and middle-income countries.

 

Source: SDG Index and Dashboards – Global Report

First glance at the Zero Draft New Urban Agenda 18 June

Extract from Zero Draft New Urban Agenda #NUA #NuevaAgendaUrbana
#AgendaBaruPerkotaan #NouvelAgendaUrbain #Новая повестка дня городского развития

By the year 2050, the world urban population is expected to nearly double, posing massive sustainability challenges in terms of housing, infrastructure, basic services, and jobs among others. There is a need to address the way cities and human settlements are planned, developed, governed and managed.

“32. We commit to recognise the working poor in the informal economy as contributors and legitimate actors of the urban economies, including the unpaid and domestic workers. A gradual approach to formalisation will be developed to preserve and enhance informal livelihoods while extending access to legal and social protections, as well as support services to the informal workforce.”

“52. We commit to facilitate and support urban development in a manner that preserves rapidly diminishing natural resources, protects and improves the urban ecosystem and environmental services, promotes disaster risk reduction, while promoting sustainable economic development and people’s well-being, through environmentally sound planning, infrastructure and basic services, enhancing the quality of life of the inhabitants.”

“53. We commit to promote the creation of well-connected and well-distributed networks of open, multipurpose, safe and green public spaces, including the creation of ecological corridors, to improve the resilience of cities to disasters and climate change, reducing flood risks and heat waves, and improving food security and nutrition, physical and mental health, household and ambient air quality, and attractive and liveable urban landscapes.”

“64. We commit to shift from reactive to more proactive risk-based, all-hazards and all-of-society approaches, while also ensuring timely and effective local disaster response to address the immediate needs of inhabitants following a disaster, as well as the integration of the ‘’Build Back Better’’ principles in the post-disaster recovery process to integrate the lessons from past disasters into future planning and resilience-building measures.”

“77. We will encourage applying the principle of subsidiarity in the implementation of national housing policies through subnational and decentralized structures in order to ensure the coherence between national and local urban development strategies, land policies, and housing supply.”

“121. We will support access to different multilateral funds, including the Green Climate Fund, for cities to secure resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation plans, policies, programmes and actions. We will collaborate with local financial institutions to develop climate finance infrastructure solutions and to create appropriate mechanisms to identify catalytic financial instruments. We will collaborate with national and international insurance and reinsurance institutions to develop feasible solutions for future climate risks in cities, with regard to investments in urban infrastructures, urban assets as well as for local populations to secure their shelter and economic needs.”

“129. We will strengthen cooperation between sub-national and local governments and civil society as well as their existing networks to deliver on capacity development programmes by means of peer-to-peer learning, subject-matter related partnerships, and collaborative action such as inter-municipal cooperation, including the establishment of practitioners’ networks and other science-policy interface mechanisms.”

“133. We will support institutionalized mechanisms for sharing and exchanging information, knowledge and expertise, including the collection, analysis and dissemination of geographically-based, community-collected and disaggregated data by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national and local contexts, as well as ensuring a robust science-policy interface in urban policy formulation.”

“136. We will foster the creation, promotion, and enhancement of open and participatory data platforms using technological and social tools available to transfer and share knowledge among national, sub-national, and local governments and other stakeholders, including non-state actors and people to enhance effective urban planning and management, efficiency, and transparency through e-governance, ICT-assisted approaches.”

 

Source: revised Zero Draft