Today is World Cities Day without us being entirely clear about what a sustainable city should be like.

Social inequalities skyrocket from one neighborhood to another. Just by crossing the street, your neighbor’s hope can be 10 years less than yours or vice versa. Access to work or the quality of it also presents great differences depending on the city, district or neighborhood to which you belong. In addition, mobility, waste management, access to green areas, energy consumption, poverty or the compactness of the urban environment represent areas of the city in which work must be done.

With this objective, the figure of the Urban Agenda is strengthened, which seeks to establish an integrated vision of the urban fact based on the development of the Objective of Sustainable Development of Sustainable Cities and Communities. The criticism of this Urban Agenda is based on the fact that the sustainability of cities does not involve bringing together a set of good intentions. Given the major challenges that cities face, defined objectives establishing a model city, which could be modified depending on the urban structure, size, economy and even its meteorology based on that the sustainability of the city is not achieved if it is not with an eye on the citizenry.

In the Basque Country, work is being done on the ‘Bultzatu 2050 Urban Agenda’. We hope that this roadmap will serve to establish criteria that facilitate decision-making and move towards “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and towns, in which no one is left behind”.

Related links

  • Although cities occupy only 3% of the earth’s surface, they account for between 60% and 80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions (UN-Habitat).
  • Urbanization, when well managed and planned, is a powerful engine for sustainable development and prosperity (Urban Beings)
  • Green Local Index (Naider)
  • Cities have become centers of agglomeration, where people have forgotten to walk, and if they do it is on tape listening to techno music between concrete walls (Ethic).
  • Video: Remembering Jane Jacobs