Transforming Cities for People and Planet: Launch of UrbanShift

Metro21 attended the Urban Shift launch on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 to learn from experts about holistic solutions and strategies to combat urban environmental crises.  UrbanShift is a new “global program transforming cities for people and planet through sustainable, integrated and inclusive approaches to urban development.”

Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Environment Programme

• Cities face three major planetary crises: climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution.
• Cities need to design, build, and retrofit infrastructure to reach the goals of the Paris agreement.

 Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO of the Global Environment Facility

• Across the global South, countries are experiencing an incredibly rapid shift from being rural societies to being urban ones.
• Many of these countries’ policies and institutions were designed for rural societies, and so are unprepared to address the urban challenges of environmental and social sustainability.
• New institutions like UrbanShift need to be created across the global South to help cities address climate change and environmental sustainability.

 Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO of the World Resource Institute

• UrbanShift’s primary sponsor organization – the goal is to create a global standard practice to accelerate urban decarbonization and improve quality of life in areas with minimal resources available for deployment.
• Their approach requires coordination across many sectors – transport, urban planning, city operations, etc.
• Even in countries that have not embraced ambitious climate goals, large cities can still lead the way in reducing emissions. It is their goal to help cities with limited national assistance become 21^st century leaders in creating a new environmentally and socially sustainable society.

Watch the full recording here.