Recognizing that majority of the world’s population now reside in cities, and that cities consume 75% of the world’s natural resources, the City of San Francisco, as host city of the United Nations World Environment Day 2005, selected “Green Cities” as the unifying theme for the event and developed the Urban Environmental Accords, a set of 21 action steps that intends to address the special environmental challenges and opportunities of cities everywhere. Given the unique capacity of mayors to initiate and steer initiatives that produce immediate and direct outcomes, mayors are recognized as excellent change agents for making urban communities into models of sustainable development.
It is for this reason that mayors from all over the world came to San Francisco on June 1-5, 2005 to share ideas and discuss solutions to universal urban environmental issues on energy, waste reduction, urban design, urban nature, transportation, environmental health, water.
By achieving success at the city level, the multilateral city commitments of the Urban Environmental Accords can inspire and mobilize expanded commitment at the national level. The Urban Environmental Accords build on and continue the legacy of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the 1996 Istanbul Conference on Human Settlements, the 2000 Millennium Development Goals and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Implementing the Urban Environmental Accords will require open and active participatory dialogue between the cities, residents, community groups, businesses, academic institutions and other stakeholders. At the end of seven years, a city that has implemented 19-21 Action Steps will be recognized as a 4-Star City, a 3-Star City for 15-18 Action Steps, a 2-Star City for 12-17 Action Steps and a 1-Star City for 8-11 Action Steps.
Measures that support the sustainable utilization and management of energy, urban design, waste reduction, urban nature, transportation, environmental health and water resources often result in reduced resource consumption and improvements in the general health and economic wellbeing of cities. Adopting the Accords can leverage a city’s purchasing power and promote the advancement of environmentally sound practices.
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