Human Settlements and Urban Issues
Country Profiles on Housing and Land Management
The Country Profile reports contain in-depth analysis of housing urban development and land management sectors while focusing on specific challenges or achievements in these sectors. These include housing provision and affordability; management and maintenance of the housing stock; energy efficiency in housing; disaster risk mitigation; urbanization; housing finance; and the legal and institutional framework. The reports also lay out sets of policy recommendations to help in meeting these challenges.
World Cities Report
The study of urban development is the main objective of the World Cities Report series. Merging the State of the World Cities Report and the Global Report on Human Settlements these reports highlight new forms of collaboration and cooperation planning governance finance and learning that can sustain positive change. They demonstrate that the current urbanization model is unsustainable. The message is that the pattern of urbanization must change in order to respond to the challenges of our time to address issues such as inequality climate change informality insecurity and unsustainable forms of urban expansion.
Making Cities Resilient Report
Tackling short-lived climate pollutants
Since 2014 Chile’s Ministry of Environment has focused on three objectives: identifying and addressing the climate effects of air pollution; taking a leading role on addressing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs); and working to integrate these two concepts at both the local and global level.
The Singapore story
Singapore has come a long way in its journey towards sustainability. In the 1960s Singapore was like any other developing country of that time – dirty and polluted lacking proper sanitation and facing high unemployment. These challenges were more acute for Singapore given our constraints as a small island city-state with no natural resources.
Dramatic turnaround
One November afternoon the Portland City Council chambers were filled with men and women in suits serious and practical. Standing out in the crowd were two middle school girls poised but nervous. One of them 12-yearold Isabel walked to the testimony table and spoke: “If we don’t take action now we will never grasp the opportunity to stop climate change. This is our future.”
Healthy cities
Health needs to be an integral part of Habitat III the Third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development and of its outcome.
UN environment at work. District energy: A tried-and-tested answer to modern urban energy problems
In homes and workplaces schools and hospitals technologies such as boilers and air-conditioners consume vast amounts of energy. Indeed half the energy buildings use is for heating and cooling and most of this comes from fossil fuels burned in buildings’ individual boilers and in power plants on the outskirts of our cities. Citizens cities and countries are starting to take real action to move away from this status quo to more sustainable solutions and this monumental shift is cutting greenhouse gas emissions cleaning our air saving money and reducing energy imports.
Empowering the vulnerable
Many cities in the developing world lack the capacity to adapt in the face of emerging climate variability caught in a perfect storm of population growth escalating adaptation needs and substantial development deficits. In South Africa these challenges have been exacerbated by a legacy of formalised racial division that has created widespread social economic and environmental injustice.
Shaping tomorrow’s cities
I recently visited one of China's eco-cities and was impressed by its highly efficient buildings and use of renewable energy for street lighting. However this newly built city is struggling to attract people largely due to lack of accessibility to public transport and its distance from jobs. The city’s urban planner told me that the isolation of this “eco-enclave” could have been avoided if a more holistic approach had been taken early in the planning stage including considering various aspects of land management urban services connectivity and jobs.
Bouncing back
In these rapidly changing times as the effects of climate change and population growth challenge urban areas we need a new paradigm for cities. They must be resilient to adapt and thrive.
Going for 100%
Oxford County is a sleepy little farming county in the agricultural heart of southwestern Ontario Canada. Some 4000 km away San Diego is a Californian metropolis of 1.4 million dubbed the “City of Villages” for its many distinct communities. Across the Atlantic Osnabrück Germany is home to a Volkswagen car plant and known as the “City of Peace” for its role in ending the 17th century Thirty Years' War.
UN environment at work. Share the road: Putting pedestrians and cyclists first
Every 30 seconds someone dies in a road crash. That’s over 1.2 million people every year dying on the world’s roads. The World Health Organization’s Global Road Safety Report of 2015 shows that worst still half of these deaths are vulnerable road users – pedestrians cyclists and motorcyclists. Tragically 500 children die every day in road crashes.
Innovation. Redesigning cities
Cities are innovation hubs. They provide the setting the stimulus and the substance for people to come together and exchange and develop new ideas. Cultural diversity universities informal meeting places and key pressure points spur the investigation into new approaches. Access to capital and shorter decision-making processes help the best of them become a reality. In this way cities have spawned so many new trends.
Cities are ecosystems
Cities are often perceived as monuments of human disregard for the natural world the very antithesis of nature. But urban biodiversity has become a sustainability indicator and the importance of urban green governance is increasingly apparent.
UN environment creative. Dreaming up the city we want to live in
Maskbook is an artistic initiative which invites people to take an ordinary dust or pollution mask and transform it from a symbol of fear into a symbol of hope. Chinese artist and photographer Wen Fang gave the initiative its name: “In China since we all wear masks to protect us against the pollution we say that Facebook for us should be renamed Maskbook.”
Reflections
In 1996 when the United Nations held its last conference on the urban environment Habitat II the city of Nairobi had some 800000 inhabitants. At that time the ride from the airport to UN Environment headquarters on the other side of the city was something of a mini-safari.
It starts here
In recent decades there has been an unprecedented increase in the proportion and number of people living in urban environments. In 2014 54 per cent of the world's people were urban dwellers compared to 34 per cent in 1960. This trend is expected to continue while the global population is predicted to grow from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 9.7 billion in 2050 and the size of the urban area expected to triple within the next two decades. It is clear that cities are where our future is going to be decided. This places a large burden of responsibility on us as administrators and decision-makers looking at how we shape our cities now and in the future.
Environmental champion
It is the largest peacetime clean-up operation in history. On 6 August nearly 500 people descended on Mumbai's Versova Beach and removed vast amounts of rubbish.
Seizing the opportunity
Habitat III the Third International Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development offers the world an exceptional opportunity to rethink the sustainability of our urban model. It is largely recognized that cities have become the main driver of economic development. Yet an analysis of the urbanization of the last two decades reveals that current urban practices are unsustainable: our cities consume 78 per cent of the world’s energy produce more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions and consume much more land than is needed with consequent environmental impacts.
UN environment at work. Ecosystems for urban resilience
Cities depend on their surrounding bio-physical landscape utilising goods and services provided to urban populations from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as climate and flood control; supporting services such as nutrient cycling and crop pollination; and cultural services such as connecting urban inhabitants to natural values. The health of the ecological system within and surrounding the city influences the health of the city itself. UN Environment recognises that building the resilience of urban populations depends on how climate and non-climate drivers are tackled together. The management of urban and surrounding peri-urban ecosystems has the potential to contribute significantly to the overall resilience of the city to climate change and other pressures.
Going green on a dry continent
Melbourne has just been named the World’s Most Liveable City for the sixth consecutive year. Naturally I am tremendously proud of that but such an accolade cannot be achieved without a strong focus on sustainability. For liveability and sustainability are intrinsically linked. In particular we do much to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Take our international award-winning Urban Landscapes Adaptation Program concentrating on trees water and green open space.
Creating cities for people
Latin American cities are going through accelerated urbanisation and reflect high levels of inequality. The continent is the world's most urbanised developing region with eight out of ten people living in cities. Conditions are often unfavourable for rapid expansion because of problems including poor public services socio-economic inequality and environmental degradation. Yet these cities present opportunities for a paradigm shift in how to plan develop and manage urban development.
Empowering cities
Europe Africa and Latin America now each have roughly half a billion people living in cities. In Asia there are two billion city-dwellers. Very soon two-thirds of the global population will be urban.
Transported to the future
Remarkably Medellin is now a global reference point for urban planning efficient governance and social inclusion; moreover the city has undergone a major transformation to get there. We owe this success to our people and to working with different sectors of society: public private and academic.
Quantifying climate benefits from World Heritage forests
In combatting climate change society must pull hard on two planet-size levers: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration. Many economic sectors can mitigate climate change only through the first of those but with forests we can work both levers at once. We can—and indeed must— simultaneously reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and maintain or increase the carbon captured by forests. This is the promise of forests in combatting climate change.
Informe especial: Cambio climático, Patrimonio Mundial, COVID-19 y turismo
El cambio climático es la amenaza de más rápido crecimiento para el Patrimonio Mundial en todo el mundo. Desde los canales de Venecia en Italia hasta los bosques de la naturaleza de Tasmania en Australia el Patrimonio Mundial está en peligro.
Le patrimoine mondial naturel face au changement climatique
L’idée primordiale du patrimoine mondial est de faire en sorte que les lieux les plus emblématiques et les plus précieux pour l’humanité survivent à toutes les crises et soient conservés de génération en génération. Aujourd’hui nous sommes confrontés à une crise environnementale sans précédent dans l’histoire de l’humanité : le changement climatique.
Convenciones
Vivimos un momento en el que es necesario actuar con decisión para producir acuerdos globales sobre sostenibilidad inclusión social y reducción de la pobreza resiliencia climática y conservación y gestión sostenible de la biodiversidad. Desde una perspectiva global las trayectorias de crecimiento económico imperantes han puesto en riesgo la supervivencia de al menos dos de los sistemas que sustentan el bienestar humano en el planeta: el clima y la diversidad biológica. Existe un claro consenso científico (IPCC 2021 2018; IPBES 2019) que señala un alarmante riesgo planetario por el deterioro de ambos sistemas y señala a la actividad humana como principal responsable.
Organisations consultatives
Ces dernières années l’Asie du Sud-Est – une région qui abrite 42 biens du patrimoine mondial dans 9 pays sur 11 et qui contient de nombreux biens inestimables du patrimoine naturel et culturel – a souffert de plus en plus de risques naturels sans précédent accélérés par les turbulences climatiques et les actions induites par l’homme.
El Patrimonio Mundial Natural frente al cambio climático
Una idea central del Patrimonio Mundial es asegurar que los lugares más emblemáticos y valiosos para la humanidad sobrevivan a todas las crisis y se conserven a través de las generaciones. Hoy en día nos enfrentamos a lo que quizá sea nuestro mayor desafío una crisis medioambiental sin precedentes en la historia de la humanidad y en su centro está el cambio climático.
In Focus: Climate change: The World Heritage Convention and climate change
The World Heritage Convention was adopted in 1972. The associated framework mechanisms and instruments have evolved however and they continue to develop in response to issues affecting the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage properties.
Outreach
A new publication Visitors Count! has been launched to help assess the value of tourism in protected areas. This set of guidelines published by UNESCO and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) puts forward a standard methodology for evaluating the impact of protected areas on the local economy.
Quantifier les avantages climatiques des forêts du patrimoine mondial
Dans la lutte contre le changement climatique la société doit tirer fortement sur deux leviers au niveau de la planète : la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et l’augmentation de la séquestration du carbone. De nombreux secteurs économiques ne peuvent atténuer le changement climatique que par le biais du premier de ces leviers mais avec les forêts nous pouvons actionner les deux leviers à la fois. Nous pouvons – et devons – simultanément réduire les émissions dues à la déforestation et à la dégradation des forêts et maintenir ou augmenter le carbone piégé par les forêts. Telle est la promesse qu’offre les forêts dans la lutte contre le changement climatique.
In Danger
The World Heritage Committee during its 44th session from 16 to 31 July 2021 decided to remove Salonga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) from the List of World Heritage in Danger because of improvements in its state of conservation.
Difusión
Se ha lanzado una nueva publicación Visitors Count! para ayudar a evaluar el valor del turismo en las áreas protegidas. Este conjunto de directrices publicado por la UNESCO y la Agencia Federal Alemana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (BfN) propone una metodología estándar para evaluar el impacto de las áreas protegidas en la economía local.
Primer Plano: Cambio climático: La Convención del Patrimonio Mundial y el cambio climático
El texto de la Convención del Patrimonio Mundial no se ha revisado desde 1972. Sin embargo el marco los mecanismos y los instrumentos asociados han evolucionado y siguen desarrollándose en respuesta a las cuestiones que afectan al Valor Universal Excepcional de los sitios del Patrimonio Mundial.
Nouvelles: Préservation
Au cours de sa 44e session élargie tenue en ligne et présidée par la Chine depuis Fuzhou le Comité du patrimoine mondial a examiné les nominations soumises en 2020 lorsque la session a dû être reportée en raison de la pandémie de COVID-19 et en 2021.
Foro: Entrevista
Natural World Heritage versus climate change
A core idea of World Heritage is to ensure that the places most iconic and valuable to humanity outlast all crises and are conserved across generations. Today we face perhaps our biggest challenge yet an environmental crisis unprecedented in human history and at its centre is climate change.
Sitios en Peligro
El Comité del Patrimonio Mundial durante su 44ª reunión del 16 al 31 de julio de 2021 decidió retirar de la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial en Peligro al Parque Nacional de Salonga (República Democrática del Congo) gracias a las mejoras en su estado de conservación.
Focus: Changement climatique, patrimoine mondial, COVID-19 et tourisme
Le changement climatique est la menace qui se développe le plus rapidement pour le patrimoine mondial. Des canaux de Venise en Italie aux forêts de la région sauvage de Tasmanie en Australie le patrimoine mondial est en danger.
Conventions
We are living at a time when we need to act decisively to produce global agreements on sustainability social inclusion and poverty reduction climate resilience and the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity. From a global perspective the prevailing trajectories of economic growth have put at risk the survival of at least two of the systems that sustain human well-being on the planet: climate and biological diversity. There is a clear scientific consensus (IPCC 2021 2018; IPBES 2019) that indicates an alarming planetary risk due to the deterioration of these two systems and points to human activity as the main factor responsible.
Close-Up: Climate change, World Heritage, COVID-19 and tourism
Climate change is the fastest-growing threat to World Heritage globally. From the canals of Venice in Italy to the forests of the Tasmanian wilderness in Australia World Heritage is at risk.
Órganos consultivos
En los últimos años el sudeste asiático -una región que alberga 42 sitios del Patrimonio Mundial en nueve de once paíes y que contiene numerosos bienes del patrimonio natural y cultural de incalculable valor- ha sufrido cada vez más peligros naturales sin precedentes acelerados por las turbulencias climáticas y las acciones provocadas por el hombre.
Promotion
Une nouvelle publication intitulée Visitors Count! a été lancée pour aider à évaluer la valeur du tourisme dans les zones protégées. Ces lignes directrices publiées par l’UNESCO et la Bundesamt für Naturschutz BfN) (l’Agence fédérale allemande pour la conservation de la nature – BfN –) proposent une méthodologie standard pour évaluer l’impact des zones protégées sur l’économie locale.
Cuantificación de los beneficios climáticos de los bosques del Patrimonio Mundial
En la lucha contra el cambio climático la sociedad debe accionar con fuerza dos palancas del tamaño de un planeta: reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y aumentar el secuestro de carbono. Muchos sectores económicos sólo pueden mitigar el cambio climático a través de la primera pero con los bosques podemos mover ambas palancas a la vez. Podemos -y de hecho debemos- reducir simultáneamente las emisiones derivadas de la deforestación y la degradación de los bosques y mantener o aumentar el carbono capturado por éstos. Esta es la promesa de los bosques en la lucha contra el cambio climático.
Dossier: Changement climatique: La Convention du patrimoine mondial et le changement climatique
Le texte de la Convention du patrimoine mondial n’a pas été révisé depuis 1972. Le cadre les mécanismes et les instruments associés ont cependant évolué et continuent de se développer en réponse aux questions touchant à la valeur universelle exceptionnelle des biens du patrimoine mondial.