Jan Gehl speaks at Rio +20 Earth Summit conference Sustainable City; expressions of the 21st century

Today Jan will speak at the Rio + 20 conference, the Sustainable City; expressions of the 21st century. He will speak about people -first strategies to building a more sustainable future.

Themes of the summit are the Green Economy in the context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication as well as an Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development. Of the seven critical issues named by the United Nations cities are one of them. They state that

‘the goal is (if member states agree) an overarching goal for cities that could be formulated in terms of improving quality of life within cities whilst limiting the environmental footprint of cities.’

The aim is to reflect on the Sustainable Development Goals of the past and those with upcoming target dates and set new ones. The directorate mention a re-framing of sustainable development goals  in the urban sector in terms of:  improving health and broader quality of life indicators; improving integrated planning for cities;  decreasing emissions from transport,  all of which we are very proud to be already working hard to achieve. Good luck to all striving for ambitious goals at the Rio summit 2012 and we hope it is a great success.