Towards Sustainable Cities: Urban Governance and City Leadership

Hosted by Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft

This workshop will focus on the increasingly important role of urban governance in contributing to the global sustainability agenda. As cities and urban regions are home to a growing majority of the global population, cities in diverse regional and political contexts have become important agents of change, platforms for experimentation and arenas of collaboration facilitating the transition towards a green economy.

This new global responsibility of cities has led to considerable outcomes on the ground, cutting across multiple policy sectors with a particular focus on transport, building, waste and spatial planning interventions. These policy areas have profited from devolved political powers to local and regional governments, a greater awareness of specific local requirements and a significant capacity to strengthen the collaboration between diverse public, private and third-party actors. But cities also continue to struggle with limited resources, policy coordination problems with higher tiers of government and competing policy objectives.

This workshop will bring together the experience of two leading green cities, Copenhagen and Tuebingen, Germany, both of which internationally recognized for their role as green leaders related to their transport, building and energy policies. In addition, a global survey of 90 cities will be presented to assess the role of cities in leading an emerging green economy.

Moderation:

Nobrega, Camila
Editor of Canal Ibase, Brazil

Panelists:

Elf, Mette Margrethe
Director, Environmental Department, City of Copenhagen, Denmark

Palmer, Boris
Mayor of Tuebingen, Germany

Rode, Philipp
Executive Director of LSE Cities and Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom

van Staden, Maryke
Senior Manager, Low-Carbon City Agenda, ICLEI World Secretariat, Bonn, Germany

Complete workshop on soundcloud:

WS52 - Towards Sustainable Cities - Urban Governance and City Leadership