Urban Sustainability

The Urban Sustainability Agenda

The emergence of urban sustainability as an important concept in international development corresponds with the tipping of the balance of the world's population toward a majority of urban, rather than rural, dwellers. This balance was tipped sometime in the first decade of the 21st century, depending on which population estimate is used. Correspondingly, UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency responsible for local settlements, has taken on urban sustainability as a key challenge. Thinking about urban sustainability in the context of the less developed world brings the human dimensions of sustainable development into focus—that is, the part of the original Brundtland definition that emphasizes poverty alleviation and meeting the needs of the current generation. In the developed world, where the means exist to provide for these needs, the other component of the definition, its focus on intergenerational and environmental equity, is more aptly tackled. Coordinated action by developed and developing nations alike would, of course, be ideal. Some point to significant opportunities for “leapfrog” development, by which the developing world might draw on the experience and expertise of the developed world to bypass the most unsustainable stages of development and create green, sustainable cities before many developed world cities are able to make this transition. This ideal is complicated in practice by the higher up-front costs of green development, the fact that many new technologies are unproven, and the sentiment throughout the developing world that those primarily responsible for the unsustainable state of our cities should be the ones to incur the costs of the sustainability transition.

A common framework for urban development is needed that incorporates the impacts of decisions well into the future as well as around the world. However, initiatives in governing cities with an eye further into the past and the future—such as Portland's attempts to meet the Kyoto Protocol carbon emissions reduction target or the goal of Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to generate zero carbon and zero waste by 2016—paradoxically can decrease accountability and action. The politicians and professionals of today will rarely be affected personally by the failure of their projects and goals beyond the horizon of the immediate future, and comparisons with past conditions can be manipulated in any number of ways. The public attention that flows to cities that make grand plans and targets is rarely, if ever, sustained long enough to track their progress, as the standard metrics for evaluating concepts such as carbon neutrality and zero waste do not exist and public and political preferences and pressures are certain to change significantly over time.

...