GFHS

Committed to Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All

In Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC


 
Annual2013

Theme Activities

The Dialogue was attended by nearly 400 delegates from 40 countries and over 90 cities:

Gyan Acharya, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations
Jochen Flasbarth, President of German Federal Environment Agency (UBA)
Previous
Almuth Hartwig-Tiedt, Secrtary of State of the Ministry of Environment, Health and Consumer Protection of the Federal State of Brandenburg
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Chairman of Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS) and former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN

There were ministerial officials from Germany, India, Shri Lanka, Colombia, Kenya and other relevant countries; officials from the United Nations, the World Bank and other international organizations; and more than 90 city mayors and governmental senior representatives from Bangkok Thailand, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Mumbai India, Lviv Ukraine, Santa Monica USA, Amman Jordan and some other cities in different continents, as well as representatives of renowned experts and scholars, international organizations and multinational enterprises, and multinational corporations such as Siemens, Schneider, Bosch, Daimler, and Toyota. A delegation of over 50 government officials and business representatives, experts and scholars from China were also invited to attend the conference.

Opening and High-level Dialogue

Jochen Flasbarth pointed out that the failure in protecting our environment will have bad effect on the economy. The Transport sector contributes significantly to the climate change. We are aimed to reduce the emission by 80% in Germany by 2050, which requires multi-parties cooperation. The transport sector has to bear all its own costs, as well as the environmental and health costs. Flasbarth demanded that counterproductive subsidies in this regard must be reduced. E-mobility and gas from renewable sources are clearly better solutions than biofuels, which mostly consume land for food production. The German word Energiewende” has been used in English. It is essential to mostly depend on renewable energy, wind and solar energy in Germany by 2050.

Friedemann Kunst, Head Department of Transport, Senate Department of Urban Development and the Environment
Thomas Meiβner, Deputy Director, Berlin Agency for Electromobility eMo

Moderated High-level Dialogue on Implementing Rio+20:

Multi-stakeholder Cooperation and win-win Scenarios in Urban Development and Transport Planning

From Left:
Amorn Kitchawengkul Deputy Governor of Bangkok, Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration (BMA)
Li Xiaolin, Chairman, China Power New Energy Development Company Limited (CPNE), Hong Kong, China
Kurt Bodewig, former Federal German Minister of Transport
Nikhil Seth, Director, UN DESA Division for Sustainable Development
Sagar Naik, Mayor of Navi Mumbai, India
Jamil Mujahed, Director General, Land Transport Regulatory Commission,aMMAN, Jordan
Alistair Clark, Managing Director, Environment and Sustainability Department, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

2013 Global Forum on Human Settlements--

Sustainable Urban Development and Ecological Cities 

Initiatives and Best Practices

This Forum has been held for 8 times. Sustainable Human Settlements is the key and foundation to create the future we want. It is a cause with grand prospect and daunting challenges, and calls for political foresights, corporate social responsibilities, public engagement and efforts of global stakeholders. This Forum made tremendous contribution to the process of sustainable urbanization, in the meantime, it resulted in plenty of outcomes, practices, partnerships, which greatly inspired all the stakeholders and promoted multi-parties’ joint effort towards the sustainable city development.

Arab Hoballah, Chief of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch in the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics of UNEP
Nikhil Seth, Director, UN DESA Division for Sustainable Development
Wolfgang Teubner, Managing Director of International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) European Secretariat
Lu Haifeng Secretary-General of Global Forum on Human Settlements
Silvia Isabela Breu, Director, Oeiras Municipal Development Office, Portugal



Naoki Mimuro, Chief Representative of the City of Yokohama in Europe
David Liu, Chaiman of Sichuan David Architectural Design Co., Ltd
Hartkopf, Director of Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics and Professor of School of Architecture Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
High-level Dialogue

Parallel Sessions

Parallel Session 2: Multi-modal Transport Concepts for Cities

Parallel Session 1: Linking Urban Development and Mobility - Approaches and Success Stories in International Cooperation

Parallel Session 4: Sustainable Energy for Sustainable Transport

Parallel Session 3: Exchange on Urban Planning for Sustainable Transport