Water management: Women must be central to inclusive strategies

by Janna Frischen, MSc Candidate, United Nations University and Resilient Cities 2017 communications volunteer Urban growth is becoming a major global challenge, as more than half of the total population is living in cities, with more than 60 percent by 2030. How cities are built today will shape the future of tomorrow, which means sustainable urban 

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New Vendor Engagement Framework Helps Cities Work Smarter

By Melanie Nutter, Principal, Nutter Consulting and Betty Seto, Head of Department, DNV GL In the past five years, leading cities across North America have made tremendous inroads to testing and deploying smart city technologies to address key challenges related to maintaining and replacing aging infrastructure, managing maintenance costs and providing improved services to residents 

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Letter from Thomas Kastrup-Larsen, Mayor of Aalborg, Denmark

Dear ICLEI friends and colleagues, Cities are taking the lead when it comes to pushing the sustainable agenda. This was emphasized last April in Bilbao, Spain, where the Basque Declaration was approved at the 8th European Sustainable Cities & Towns Conference. The declaration focuses on accelerating the socio-cultural, socio-economic and technological transformation of our cities 

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Letter from Pekka Sauri, Deputy Mayor of Helsinki – March 2017

Dear ICLEI Friends and Colleagues, Cities around the world have a crucial role in the transition to sustainable consumption and production by using sustainable public procurement (SPP) as a key tool. By introducing sustainable criteria in our purchases, local and regional governments are making our societies more sustainable, while at the same time ensuring social 

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Letter from Chen Chu, Mayor of Kaohsiung – February 2017

Dear ICLEI friends and colleagues, To advance sustainable transport globally, the City of Kaohsiung will host the 3rd EcoMobility World Festival and Congress in October 2017. Today, over 90 percent of Kaohsiung residents use private cars or motorized scooters to go about their daily lives, contributing to air and noise pollution, traffic jams and accidents 

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Protecting our water sources brings a wealth of benefits

By Andrea Erickson, Managing Director, Water Security The journey of our water from source to tap is long, and not one we think much about. For most of us, our water starts high in the mountains, hundreds of miles away. From there, water flows across natural and working lands until a portion is channeled to 

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Water markets can support an improved water future

By Brian Richter, Chief Scientist, Water at The Nature Conservancy Fresh water touches every part of daily life—from drinking water and sanitation, to agriculture and energy production. Unfortunately, for nearly half of the world’s population, water scarcity is a growing issue with devastating impacts to our communities, economies and nature. In the past, countries have 

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Climate compatible development starts with finding the right partners

Alice Reil of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability rounds up lively discussions about ‘how to make climate compatible development happen’ at local and city level from the Resilient Cities 2016 congress and CDKN-ICLEI learning program. This blog post was originally published on CDKN website. Identifying adaptation options for a more sustainable tourism along the vulnerable coast of Belize. 

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There is no cohesion without social protection

by Lauren Stabler, PhD student at the Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University Alfredo Zamudio, Director of the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue, issued an inspirational call to action at today’s special feature plenary. Mr. Zamudio began his keynote speech with a personal account of his experience as an unaccompanied minor at age 13, after being 

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Cities and their food: a relationship below the radar?

by David Lammers, MSc Environmental Studies and Sustainability Studies, Lund University The goal of making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is anchored within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG11), and so is achieving food security (SDG2). The interrelation between these two goals was the central focus of the “Resilient urban food systems: city progress” session co-organized by RUAF Foundation, 

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