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Urban areas at risk
from overheating
Tokyo, 24 October 2008: At the Tokyo Conference for Climate Change, representatives from the so-called C40 cities warned that crowded urban areas were particularly susceptible to the Planet’s rising temperatures. The group of cities, whose members include Berlin, Beijing, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Sao Paulo, New York and Toronto, pledged to fight climate change by taking measures ranging from promoting renewable energy to introducing new building regulations designed to reduce the consumption of natural resources including water.

David Miller, Toronto Mayor and Chairman of the C40 group, said that city mayors from around the world were every day taking important actions to reduce energy consumption and the carbon emission. "The focus of the Tokyo conference is on measures that support adapting to climate change that is already occurring," the mayor from Canada added.

Members from the C40 group put forward ideas to prevent the "urban heat island effect," in which temperatures tend to rise in crowded metropolitan areas. The ideas include expanding green space in urban areas and building corridors to allow more wind and water to come into cities. The city planners also pledged to look into renewable energies such as solar power and to introduce water retentive pavements. The widespread use of concrete is a key reason that cities absorb heat more than rural areas.

The C40 group is an initiative started by former London Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2005. Then representatives from 18 cities met in London to discuss joining forces to tackle global warming and climate change. In August 2006, the initiative was strengthened when former President Clinton and Ken Livingstone announced a partnership between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group. This new partnership pledged to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in large cities across the world.

Mayors from world’s largest
cities congregate in Sydney
Sydney, 20 October 2008: More than 20 mayors and governors from the world’s major cities and senior representatives from over 80 cities will participate in the 9th World Congress of Metropolis, to be hosted by the New South Wales Government and be held in Sydney this week, 22-25 October. Key issues to be explored throughout the four day Congress program include climate change, urban renewal, financing public infrastructure and services and city leadership.

Big city mayors attending include mayor of Seoul Mr Oh Se-Hoon, mayor of Mumbai Dr Shubha Raul, mayor of Helsinki Mr Jussi Pajunen and mayor of Sydney Clover Moore. In addition some 1,000 delegates are expected to attend Metropolis Congress 2008 and satellite events - city mayors, technical heads of planning, architecture, transport and sustainability, industry leaders and academics - to discuss and plan for the future of the world’s largest cities.

Established in 1984, the Metropolis Association is represented by 87 member cities across the world and operates as an international forum for exploring issues and concerns common to cities with populations of more than one million.

Its main objective is to increasingly improve the development process of the leading metropolitan areas, in order to enhance the well-being of all citizens. Metropolis is an organisation representing regions and metropolitan areas at the worldwide level and is recognised as a major player by large international organisations such as the UN, WHO, the World Bank and others.

Scientists propose white roofs
and cool roads for world cities
Sacramento, 12 September 2008: California scientists announced a formula to calculate how much carbon dioxide (CO2) can be offset by increasing the reflectivity of urban surfaces like rooftops and roads. California Energy Commissioner Art Rosenfeld said white roofs could cut a building's energy use by 20 per cent and save consumers Money. "The potential energy savings in the US is in excess of $1 billion annually. Additionally, by conserving electricity we are emitting less CO2 from power plants," he added.

The scientists have quantified the effects of white roofs in populated settings in terms of CO2 offset. In a study they estimate that replacing nonreflective, dark roofing materials with white ones on an average house with 1,000 square feet of roof would result in an equivalent CO2 offset of 10 metric tons annually. With an offset value of $25 per metric ton, that could be worth $250, according to European CO2 markets.

Scientists have known for centuries that putting white roofs on homes and buildings is a simple and effective way to reflect the sun's powerful rays. Similarly, cool-colored pavements aid in the reduction of "urban heat islands." When rooftops and pavements are more reflective, global warming can be reduced.

Since 2005, commercial buildings with flat roofs in California have been required to have white roofs. Residential sloped roofs are also becoming more efficient. Beginning in 2009, new residential roofs and retrofit constructions in California will be required to have "cool-colored" roofs which reflect a higher fraction of the sun's rays than current roofing materials of the same color.

Because white roofs act as a geo-engineering technique to cool the earth on a global scale, the Californian scientists propose an international campaign to organize 100 of the world's largest cities in tropical and temperate zones to develop programmess to require white roofs and "cool pavements" when roofs are initially constructed and pavements installed. The projected estimate for worldwide CO2 emissions in 2025 is 37 billion metric tons; a proposed global CO2 offset would be 44 billion metric tons, valued at $1,100 billion, and enough to offset more than one year of the total global CO2 emissions.

"This idea of a 'cool cities' campaign could lead to significant energy savings, improved air quality, reduce the heat island effect in summer, and more importantly, cool the globe. This simple and effective idea can organize the world into taking measured steps to mitigate global warming. Our findings will help city leaders and urban planners quantify the amount of CO2 they can offset using white roofs and cool roads."

Report advocates
14-hour working city
Sydney, 29 August 2008: The dynamism of cities could be dramatically increased by adopting 14-hour working instead of the standard 9-to-5 paradigm, claims a new report on sustainability of the world’s mega-cities. James Calder, one of its authors, suggests that planners and governments were starting to realise that adding more infrastructure is too expensive and usually only increased demand rather than improving existing conditions. “The 14-hour working city would enable early and late shifts - work times would overlap to spread movement across a far greater number of hours during the day. This may increase productivity for workers, organisations, increase utilisation of public transport, roads and office buildings and end the peak hour rush,” James Calder explained.

The article ’14-hour working city’ by James Calder, Director of Woods Bagot, is just one of the contributions in the report, which suggests new ways of sustaining and improving city functionality with the redistribution of jobs and greater use of public transport. Titled Connecting Cities: City Regions, the study is the work of six leading global academics and urban professionals. It examines the impact of urban development and the new structures of mega-cities and will be discussed at the 9th World Congress of Metropolis to be held in Sydney on 22 to 25 October and hosted by the New South Wales state government.

Hiroshima mayor regrets London’s
withdrawal from Mayors for Peace
Hiroshima/Nagasaki, 13 August 2008: Five weeks after London pulled out of the international initiative Mayors for Peace, the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the 63rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of their cities. Reading out the Nagasaki peace declaration, the city’s mayor Tomihisa Taue said human beings had no future unless nuclear weapons were eliminated. “We shall clearly say no to nuclear weapons." Meanwhile, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba expressed his regret about London’s withdrawal from Mayors for Peace. “Although the initiative is supported by 2,368 cities in 131 regions and countries from across the world, we shall miss the contributions and support from Europe’s most important city,” he said.

The Mayors for Peace campaign is also supported by United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the vast majority of people living in cities worldwide. This year’s ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were attended by representatives from 55 countries including China. Mayor Akiba, who serves as president of Mayors for Peace, said what the Hiroshima survivors were telling us was that no one else should ever go through the experience they suffered. “An atomic bombing creates a living hell on Earth where the living envy the dead.“

Four cities bid to host
youth winter Olympics
Beijing, 3 August 2008: All four applicant cities bidding to host the first-ever winter Youth Olympics in 2012 have made the final shortlist. In December 2008, the IOC Hill announce whether China's Harbin, Austria's Innsbruck, Kuopio in Finland and Norway's Lillehammer Hill be selected to host the Games. The new event, which is IOC President Jacques Rogge's brainchild, is designed to generate enthusiasm among the world's teenagers who in recent years have turned in increasing numbers away from the Summer and Winter Games, a trend which has started to worry Olympic TV broadcasters.

Singapore will host the first summer edition of the Youth Games in 2010, which will have about 3,200 athletes competing in 26 sports and will cost some $30 million.

Satisfaction survey rates
Chicago best city overall
Chicago, 31 July 2008: A new survey conducted in 14 cities worldwide says that 83 per cent of city dwellers are satisfied with their city, while 75 per cent want to continue living in their city. But these positive attitudes are tempered by contradictory feelings about city life, with residents feeling a great sense of freedom (84 per cent) but feeling constrained by high cost-of-living and economic pressures (80 per cent). The city is viewed as a setting where it is relatively easy to meet people (72 per cent) but one that triggers feelings of isolation, anonymity and anxiety among a majority (53 per cent) of people. Convenience, attachment and stress were the top three feelings respondents used to describe their relationship with their city. Mixed emotions seem to be a permanent fixture of city life around the globe.

The three US cities surveyed (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) performed well. Chicagoans are the most satisfied (per cent "very satisfied") with their city overall (49 per cent), followed by Sydney (44 per cent), New York (41 per cent), Berlin (38 per cent), Los Angeles and Paris (35 per cent each). Satisfaction is lowest in Mexico City (19 per cent), Beijing (18 per cent) and Tokyo (14 per cent).

In addition to convenience, a sense of freedom and an ease in meeting people, city dwellers appreciate cities for their sports and cultural activities, public transportation and the diversity of people. Chief among their dislikes and concerns are the costs of living, traffic jams, safety, pollution, noise, dirt and poor management of public services. What city dwellers say would improve their quality of life includes reduced cost of living (49 per cent globally versus 59 per cent for US cities), improved safety (27 per cent), less pollution (25 per cent), reduced unemployment (25 per cent), fewer traffic jams (23 per cent) and development of public transportation (18 per cent).

"The survey, which was conducted by Veolia Environnement of France, shows how city dwellers worldwide share very common personal desires and a common concern for the future of their cities," said Michel Gourvennec, chief executive of the Veolia Environnement group in North America. "The growth pace of large urban areas is spurring greater complexity in the management of public services and infrastructure. City dwellers want greener, cleaner cities with better affordability and greater mobility.

What urbanites like about the cities where they live - Worldwide, respondents cited the following when asked what they like most about the city where they live: Public transportation systems (36 per cent), sports and cultural activities (35 per cent), economic and cultural dynamism (30 and 29 per cent, respectively), entertainment possibilities (26 per cent), and diversity (23 per cent).

What urbanites dislike about the cities where they live - Respondents cited the following when asked what they hate about the city where they live: Traffic jams (48 per cent), pollution (38 per cent), noise (28 per cent), dirt (26 per cent), poor management of public services and crowds (both at 25 per cent).

Improving public transportation and mobility is important to city dwellers - Sixty-six per cent of respondents in all 14 cities use public transportation as their primary means of transportation versus a much lower 41 per cent in the U.S. Residents in Los Angeles and Chicago are more likely to use cars as their primary means of transportation (82 per cent) versus the global average (53 per cent). Overall, Americans are more likely to see traffic congestion as a strong dislike and are more passionate about reducing traffic congestion as a key way to improve quality of life.

Residents of Shanghai, Beijing, Chicago, Prague, Lyon and Paris are most confident about the future of their city. Around the world, however, the per cent that is "very confident" is relatively low (16 per cent) versus 49 per cent who are "somewhat confident" about the future. Chief worries for the future include: cost of living (72 per cent), air quality (66 per cent), noise (65 per cent), quality of the environment (56 per cent) and housing (55 per cent).

World Mayor 2008
The final shortlist
London/Freiburg, 4 July 2008: Public voting for World Mayor 2008 has now ended. Between January of this year and the end of June more than 200,000 people from around the world cast their votes for and commented on mayors who they thought worthy of the 2008 Award. While all of this year’s 50 long-listed mayors have made significant contributions to the well-being of their communities, eleven of them stand out in terms of number of votes and persuasiveness of supporting statements received. They are (listed in alphabetical order of their cities):

Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa
Leopoldo Eduardo López, Mayor of Chacao, Venezuela
Göran Johansson, Mayor of Gothenburg, Sweden
Jaime Nebot, Mayor of Guayaquil, Ecuador
Marides Fernando, Mayor of Marikina City, Philippines
Ulrich Maly, Mayor of Nürnberg, Germany
Phil Gordon, Mayor of Phoenix, USA
José Fogaça, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Mayor of Tehran, Iran
Salvador Gandara, Mayor of Villa Nueva, Guatemala
Elmar Ledergerber, Mayor of Zurich, Switzerland

Between now and the end of September, the editors of City Mayors, the organisers of the World Mayor project, will consult and take advise on who of the eleven mayors from the final shortlist should receive the 2008 World Mayor Award. The winner of the 2008 World Mayor Award will be announced on 14 October 2008. More

Toronto mayor to lead cities’
fight against climate change
Toronto, 7 June 2008: Toronto Mayor David Miller has replaced London’s former mayor Ken Livingstone as head of the C40 group, an international forum where the mayors of some of the world’s most important cities share initiatives on environmental policies and co-ordinate strategies. The group was formed in 2005 by Ken Livingstone. Miller told reporters that he was honoured to have been chosen for this important role. "Climate change is the issue of our time, perhaps of all time," he said.

Mayor Miller also emphasised that cities were doing more to fight global warming than any other level of government. He also urged his fellow mayors to play a leading role at the coming international climate change talks in Copenhagen.

"Our big goal is for cities to have a big voice in the Copenhagen discussions about the strategies for the world," he said. "Cities know what to do. We act, our businesses act, our residents act. And over the next year and a half one of our goals will be make sure the voice of cities is heard very clearly at those decisions,” Mayor Miller explained.

The C40 group is made up of the following cities: Addis Ababa, Athens, Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Chicago, Delhi, Dhaka, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Karachi, Lagos, Lima, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo, and Warsaw.

IOC names bidding cities
for 2016 Summer Olympics
Athens, 5 June 2008: At a meeting in Athens, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has selected the four cities, which will officially bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. They are: Chicago (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Madrid (Spain) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Three cities were eliminated from the race: Prague (Czech Republic), Doha (Qatar) and Baku (Azerbaijan). The IOC will select the winner by secret ballot on 2 October 2009, in Copenhagen.

The IOC evaluation report assessing the technical merits of each bid ranked Tokyo with the top overall marks, followed closely by Madrid. Chicago and Doha were tied for third, with Rio fourth. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, currently on a visit to Athens, told reporters that the Olympic primaries were over now with the general election campaign to commence.

Officials from Chicago, the city which has been regarded as the favourite, said that the rankings, based on the nuts-and-bolts portion of each city’s bid, does not necessarily indicate that the local team is in third place. “Rather, making the cut is a sort of seal of approval that all of the finalists are eligible bachelors.”

Tokyo has put forward plans to construct a stadium on the city's waterfront costing about 294.3 billion yen (US$2.8 billion). The Japanese capital held the Olympics in 1964. Rio de Janeiro's chances of bringing the Olympics to South America for the first time may have been boosted by its successful staging of the 2007 Pan American Games. Rio will also host a number of games during the 2014 Football World Cup. Madrid lost out three years ago to London and may struggle to convince the IOC who does not favour consecutive Summer Games on the same continent.

City mayors vote for
sustainable tourism
Zhengzhou, 14 April 2008: More than 200 mayors representing tourism cities from 35 countries and areas worldwide signed and published a manifesto to encourage the sustainable development of tourism and cities around the world. It also emphasized the need to support those areas with good tourism resources under the precondition of sustainable development, to expedite the process of urbanization and to shape a batch of tourism cities and towns with special features through developing the tourism sector.

The manifesto indicates that to maintain sustainable development was an internal requirement of tourism industry development and should be taken as the basic precondition of a tourism city's development; and it must develop the city into an important base of new eco-civilization and must make travel an important channel to spread the concept of saving resources and protecting the environment.

The mayors, who met at the 2008 Forum for Mayors of World Tourism Cities held in Zhengzhou, also stressed the need: for cooperation among tourism cities worldwide, to share good experiences of excellent promotion of both tourism and cities, and to expand tourism cooperation fields to take advantage of synergy.

European cities failed
to switch off their lights
London, 31 March 2008: While many cities in America and Asia observed Earth Hour by switching off their lights for one hour on Saturday, 29 March, the response to the energy-saving WWF initiative was muted in much of Europe. Landmark buildings in Germany, Spain and France continued to be lit up. Only in Athens, Budapest, London and Dublin did the authorities respond by turning off the floodlights at buildings such as London City Hall, Athens City Hall, the Hungarian Parliament and Canterbury Cathedral.

Elsewhere in the world, city authorities embraced the WWF call for a gesture to reduce energy waste with greater enthusiasm. In Chicago, lights on more than 200 city centre buildings were dimmed on Saturday night, while in Sydney the illumination of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge were switched off.

The city authorities of  Phoenix ordered that lights in all city-owned buildings were turned off for one hour. Darkened restaurants glowed with candlelight in San Francisco while the Golden Gate Bridge and other landmarks extinguished lights for an hour.

Google lent its support to Earth Hour by blackening its normally white home page and challenging visitors: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."

Melbourne offers best
all-round environment
Melbourne, 1 March 2008: Melbourne offers the best environmental qualities of all major cities in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. At the bottom of the table of 21 cities are New Delhi and Mumbai. Only months before this year’s Summer Olympics, host Beijing occupies a lowly 15th place. Johannesburg and Singapore are placed second and third respectively.

The survey, commissioned by MasterCard, used data from the World Health Organisation, other UN agencies and national agencies such as the US geological survey as well as Mercer, the consultancy. Cities are ranked highest to lowest in terms of environmental quality as measured by water potability and availability, sewage system, waste removal, air quality, infectious diseases, potential climate change impact and natural disasters.

The cities were ranked as follows:
Melbourne; 2) Johannesburg; 3) Singapore; 4) Dubai; 5) Sydney; 6) Tel Aviv; 7) Tokyo; 8) Seoul; 9) Kuala Lumpur; 10) Riyadh; 11) Hong Kong; 12) Chengdu; 13) Shanghai; 14) Bangkok; 15) Beijing; 16 ) Cairo; 17) Shenzhen; 18) Beirut; 19) Jakarta; 20) New Delhi; 21) Mumbai.

Commenting on the report, Yuwa Hedrick-Wong,its author and economic adviser to MasterCard said the findings were particularly alarming for India. “India really has to move fast to prevent slipping down any further," he warned. Comparing India with China, Mr Yuwa explained that over the past five years China had invested about 15 times more than India in transport, sewerage and other infrastructure that contribute to improving living standards in urban centres. “Additionally, India's democratic system and policymaking process make it harder to implement reform, while China can clearly mobilize,” he added.

The survey’s methodology also takes into account natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. Johannesburg's high ranking in part reflects its favourable location in terms of limited vulnerability to natural disaster. In contrast, Tokyo was ranked lower because of the risk of earthquake, typhoon and volcanic eruption. Sydney also ranked down the list because of the risk of rising sea levels, water scarcity and fires.

Smaller cities will grow
most in coming decades
New York, 27 February 2008: By the end of 2008, for the first time in history, half of the world's population will live in urban centers, according to a revised United Nations population study. The survey also predicts the world's urban population will almost double to 6.4 billion people by the year 2050. Most of the growth will be in cities with fewer than half a million people and not in mega cities like Tokyo, New York and Mexico City.

The report's findings imply that urban areas must be prepared to absorb enormous numbers of people over the next four decades. UN population officials say the growth of cities will not only be caused by populations migrating from rural areas, but also by the transformation of many rural areas into urban centers.

Hania Zlotnik, the head of the UN Population Division, says most of the growth will be in small cities, not the mega cities like Tokyo, New York and Mexico City. "By small cites, we mean cities with less than half a million people over time. I have to say for the cities that have more than half a million people, we know them by name and address," Zlotnik said. "But for the cities that have less than half a million people we really do not know where they are because they number in the tens of thousands. It is important to understand what you are going to have is birth of new cities. "

Most of the population growth is expected in less developed regions, especially Asia. Due largely to the rapid urbanization of China, Zlotnik says Asia is expected to become 50 per cent urban within the next 15 years. Africa's urban population is expected to triple over the next three decades.

Zlotnik says urban centers are viewed as economically dynamic, attracting investment and creating employment. Ironically, improvements in rural areas can lead to population declines.

"Usually rural development implies having agricultural production that is more productive. To do that, you have to have less people producing because the productivity is measured on the basis of how much labor you put in. So you need to become more agribusiness and agribusiness uses less people. So they need to find employment for the excess labor that will be left when that happens," said Zlotnik.

The report represents the first time the United Nation has made urban projections as far ahead as the year 2050. The report is based on continued reductions in birth rates. If fertility rates remained at the current rate, the world population would reach eight billion by 2050. (Report by Barbara Schoetzau, VoA)