In the framework of the Third Congress of Cities and Local Governments participants noted the need to speed-up the global fight against human inequality and the effects of climate change.

Mayors and delegates from 90 nations demanded in Mexico City a global finance to ensure that all countries build 2030, new cities with “sustainable that count on with adequate technologies for boosting the development and reducing the emission of greenhouse gasses.”

During the second day of the third Congress of Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), participants noted the need to accelerate a global fight against human inequality and the effects of climate change on cities.

The co-chairman of UCLG, the mayor of Quito, Augusto Barrera, stated, that support and global cooperation in the future will face the challenges of climate change, financial crises and improve coexistence among different peoples and cultures.

“We have to figure out how to run our cities better,” said Barrera during the plenary session, which ran under the theme “City of 2030.”

Barrera explained that it requires “the use of technology as a key element for the development of cities and to reduce social inequality gaps, and technological development to solve problems such as transport, water supply, environmental change.

The mayor of Mexico City and host of this forum, Marcelo Ebrard, said that the current way in which financial resources are managed at international level “hardly contribute to this paradigm of urban development.”

The capital´s governor proposed a special tax which forces countries to contribute resources to compensate for the damage they cause, adding that at least they should “assume the implications of the decisions and things they do.”

On the other hand, the mayor of Istanbul, Turkey, Kadir Topbas, agreed that the challenges faced by cities “are becoming larger.”

He said one way to tackle the challenges is to “do more participatory citizenship and to invite the regional governments to be more inclusive.” Because “if we do not know where we go, we will get nowhere in 2030,” he added.

The councilman of Culture of Barcelona, Carles Martí, said that it is in the cities, “where the major problems of today occur” and therefore proposed to create a stronger community based on the promotion of culture as a pillar of development.

In the framework of the Third World Congress of Cities and Local Governments, held from 18 to 20 November will be held in this same city the World Mayors Climate Summit (CCLIMA), it is expected to sign a Climate Covenant Global Cities in which more than 1,000 municipal governments voluntarily commit to reduce emissions to the atmosphere.

At the end of both meetings it will be presented a final document with proposals and commitments to be delivered to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, to be held from November 29 to December 10 in Cancun.

Source: EFE