Nature conservation instead of climate protection: the green roots of the right
stern.de, 21st June 2024 (in German)
News publ. 09. Jun 2016
On 7th June, adelphi, GIZ and Worldwatch Institute presented the new “State of the World” in Berlin. The focus of this year’s instalment is on the question “Can a city be sustainable?”, which was also at the center of discussion among the German experts on sustainable urban development.
Urbanisation is one of the decisive trends of our times: Urban populations are constantly growing, and their demand for natural resources is climbing. Global challenges thus increasingly demand urban solutions. To give sustainable urban development a global framework, the “New Urban Agenda”, the draft of which is currently being debated internationally, will be adopted at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in October 2016.
In this light, the Berlin based think-tank adelphi, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the American Worldwatch Institute presented the “State of the World 2016” in Berlin on Tuesday, 7 June 2016. On the occasion of the official launch of this year’s anthology with the title “Can a city be sustainable?”, Michael Renner (Worldwatch Institute), Sabine Drewes (Heinrich Böll Foundation), Prof. Günter Meinert (GIZ) and Franziska Schreiber (adelphi) discussed the results of the report and analysed them in light of current developments.
Inspired by the title of the “State of the World”, the discussion first concentrated on the overarching questions: What makes a city sustainable? What conditions are necessary to achieve that? What are the current challenges that cities today have to meet? The discussion also addressed the extent to which the European refugee crisis that began in 2015 has changed visions of sustainable urban development. The Habitat III process, given its topicality, expectations of the “New Urban Agenda”, and the demands of sustainable international urban development were also central to the discussion.
Even if many questions had to be left open, the discussants were in agreement with the audience on one point: It is true that nation-states are the current primary negotiators of the “New Urban Agenda” and our vision of the city of tomorrow; however, agreements can only succeed when cities and local authorities are brought into the process from the start. Only then can the necessary conditions be created that guarantee that the “New Urban Agenda” be successfully carried out.
The “State of the World” is a yearly anthology compiled by the Worldwatch Institute, which brings together contributions from international experts in a specific field to present the current state of the research and the related political discussions. This year’s report investigates the core principles of sustainable urban development and identifies trailblazing cities that have already put them into practice. In this way, the contributions add up to a multidisciplinary cross-section of observations ranging from the basics of waste management, to advances in public transport, all the way to topics like citizen participation and how to deal with dysfunctional governance. The overall result of the State of the World is a range of inspiring snapshots of the cities of today and a vision of the global sustainability of tomorrow.
Further information on the “State of the World – Can a City be Sustainable?” can be found at www.canacitybesustainable.org.
See also adelphi's contribution: Schreiber, Franziska and Alexander Carius 2016: The Inclusive City: Urban Planning for Diversity and Social Cohesion. In: Worldwatch Institute (Hrsg.): State of the World: Can a City Be Sustainable?. Washington D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, S. 123-141.