Localizing the SDGs: Does the SDG Implementation Require a Reform of the Way the United Nations works? (4/4 posts)

Ulrich Graute • 14 January 2021

4. Does localizing SDGs require a reform of the United Nations?

'Social distancing' between the international and local levels hampers SDG localization and achievement

Localizing the SDGs is an important subject for the UN since the launch of the Agenda 2030. Unfortunately, many UN diplomats seem to understand by 'localizing the SDGs' only the monitoring of the extend to which the SDGs are achieved on the ground. In contrast, the responsibility to care about goal achievement on the ground was delegated to the member states. A need for e.g. a (lean) management where coordination across international, national and local levels would be assured was not seen. Thus, while there was much talk at the UN Headquarters about localizing the SDGs there was never the intention to give local authorities a seat at the table where decisions are taken.

Unfortunately and to use a term from the current Corona pandemic, this 'social distancing' between the international level of the UN and the local level prevented an integrated and well coordinated implementation of the Agenda 2030 across all policy levels and countries. In addition, inter-agency cooperation within the UN and with development partners has also still a lot of potential to prove that the work of the UN as One is effective with respect to goal achievement. In return this means, when the Secretary General and the member states deplore now that SDG implementation is off track they complain about something which was caused by their own decision to simply delegate the SDG implementation to member states and to safeguard a social distancing where it doesn't help.

Talking about 'social distancing', it has to be admitted that local stakeholders also preferred to stay away from the political wrestling at the higher policy levels. Over 30,000 people from 167 countries participated at the Habitat III Conference in Quito in 2016. Only 2,000 of them were representatives of local and regional governments and among them were only a few hundred mayors.[1] Strong advocacy for the own cause looks different.

Overall, the need for a proper cooperation, enabling environment and implementation mechanism has been largely underestimated. If this doesn't change it could be that the next UN reform discussion, again, will be driven by stakeholders without a strong local linkage and commitment. Worse, the drama of the Coronavirus pandemic may be used as an umbrella to dismantle the ambitious Agenda 2030 and replace it by other priorities which may be not supportive for a sustainable development. This is not a prognosis but as advisor I am expected to always consider also the worst case.

The commitment of the UN to sustainable development is not laid down in the Charter but it is subject to negotiations

Demands for and discussion on a reform of the UN are on-going since decades and address a possible reform of the Security Council, ECOSOC, financing, development, human rights, transparency, diversity and democracy at the UN. Secretary-General António Guterres himself has made proposals to reform the United Nations for the areas of Development, Management and Peace and Security.[2] Any bigger reform is a major challenge because one cannot do it without touching vested interests of member states. Even partial reforms like a new definition of 'development' and a restructuring of the UN development pillar immediately touch interests of member states, governmental and non-governmental organisation and even of UN staff.

In 1945 the main goal of the UN was to prevent another world war. Since then the membership grew thanks to decolonization. Over the years many new mandates and agencies have been added to the organization. Stimulated by environmental problems in the 1970s a new thinking spread that our one Earth is a closed, finite system and our only home. The UN established the Brundtland Commission in 1983 to help direct the nations of the world towards the goal of sustainable development. The commission published its results in the Brundtland report "Our Common Future" in 1987. This report paved the way to the UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, in 1992. Local development was identified as key to goal achievement and the Local Agenda 21, as one of the concrete outcomes of the Rio Summit triggered worldwide about 6400 local agenda initiatives to mainstream sustainable development. The UN Summit in 2015 with the launch of the Agenda 2030 including the SDG marked a further widening of the scope of the UN. Now, not only the nations and their people but also the cities, the land, oceans and the climate are at the core of the UN. The world is now understood as one home or oikos (ancient Greek: οἶκος, plural: οἶκοι; English prefix: eco- for ecology and economics). Unfortunately, (household) there is no common understanding on the management and maintenance this oikos needs, and this puts the entire policy at risk.

[1] https://habitat3.org/the-conference/participants/ (accessed on 14 January 2021)

[2] https://reform.un.org/ (accessed on 13 January 2021)

Global and regional cooperation in an age of epidemic uncertainty

The accumulation of different international crisis and now the Corona pandemic triggers a new reform discussion. Many governmental and non-governmental institutions already joined the dialogue on the future of the UN. For instance, the Doha Forum is a global platform for dialogue, bringing together leaders in policy to build innovative and action driven networks. Strategic partners include Chatham House, European Council of Foreign Relations, International Crisis House and the Munich Security Conference.[1] And there is the Stimson Center in Washington D.C.. It currently implements a Just Security 2020 program that "aims to build a more capable United Nations, strengthen other global institutions to better cope with existing and emerging global challenges, and promoting multilateral approaches to international problems." The Doha Forum, in partnership with the Stimson Center’s Just Security 2020 program [2], released on 30 Nov 2020, the day before the UN Summit on the pandemic a new report: "Coping with New and Old Crises: Global and Regional Cooperation in an Age of Epidemic Uncertainty"[3]. Co-chairs of the Doha Forum are the Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar and the very Gro Harlem Brundtland who chaired in the 1980s the Brundtland Commission.

[1] https://dohaforum.org/about-us (accessed on 13 January 2021)

[2] https://www.stimson.org/project/just-security-2020/ (accessed on 13 January 2021)

[3] https://dohaforum.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/doha-report-2020-web-version.pdf (accessed on 12 January 2021)

Unfortunately, this new report is less inspirational as the one of 1987. The report’s analysis and ideas aim to spur greater, and more open, discussion and debate on the role that global governance institutions and novel, public-private partnerships can have in seeking a recovery from the pandemic that is broad-based and durable, equitable, and green. The report has no focus on the implementation of the Agenda 2030 after the pandemic. Instead, it proposes a new roadmap 2023 with a focus on four thematic clusters:

Supporting public health, basic human rights, and social protection systems;
Facilitating robust and fair economies through improved capacity development, financing for development, and resilient supply chains; and better, fairer business and life opportunities for entrepreneurs and youth;
Fostering a green recovery through sustainable industry, decarbonisation, and a broader knowledge base for climate action;
Strengthening digital connectivity, infrastructure, and public awareness-raisin.

The Doha Forum also proposes with its report to prepare for September 2023 a World Summit on Inclusive Global Governance and to adopt there a Plan of Action. While the report makes multiple references to the Agenda 2030 it foresees coordination with the HLPF only for summer 2023, i.e. short before the proposed summit. Instead of a close link to the Agenda 2030 the above-mentioned thematic clusters talk about 'sustainable industry', 'broader knowledge base for climate action', 'basic human rights' and 'resilient supply chains'. And the highlight under the subject institutional revitalization is a UN-linked new 'G20+'. The terms and their use differ considerably from the Agenda 2030. Is this just semantics or could it be the beginning of a revision of the Agenda 2030 with its SDGs towards a more pragmatic security and economy centred kind of 'UN light'? The question is difficult to be answered from the report alone.

Whatever the underlying motivation, it should be noted that there is a new discussion about the UN, its governance and policies, and it may take an unexpected turn. But even independent of the Doha Forum there are reasons enough to discuss the situation of the Agenda 2030 and localization of SDGs and to prove that

The Agenda 2030 can be put back on track and
The way the UN operates can be made more effective and efficient by strengthening coordination and participatory elements.

Suggestions for better localizing the SDG and the UN

Member states and UN Secretary General acknowledged even before the Corona pandemic that the Agenda 2030 with the localization and achievement of SDGs is off track. From here it is not too far a way to either dismantle the Agenda completely or to weaken its ambitions e.g. in the name of a COVID-19 recovery programme. Alternatively, the upcoming discussion and transition phase can and should be used to improve the Agenda 2030 by localizing the UN!

What does localizing the UN mean? A world government and world bureaucracy with a kind of a State Planning Committee at the level of the UN that micromanages the world down to the local level? No. I don't have a final definition yet and use the term here as a programmatic expression. Certainly, what is needed is a better and more effective coordination between the UN at the international level and the world below that level. The UN needs to be better informed by the local situation, challenges and opportunities. The most people are at the local level. They are not just the object of UN acitivities. Instead, they should be treated as the sovereign (recall the beginning of the UN Charter: 'We the peoples...'; see also blog post 1). The UN would benefit from going local and providing local authorities a seat at the table where decisions are taken (see blog post 3).

The following suggestions are work in progress for the reader's consideration. The guiding question for their formulation was what can be done within the current UN system to improve localizing the Agenda 2030 and the SDG implementation by improving the work and stakeholder cooperation of the UN itself.

Suggestion 1 Experience: Practice, practice, practice localization of the SDGs

Practice, practice, practice SDG implementation because all experience of practical efforts to implement and achieve goals tell us best what works, what does not and why. Which enabling environment, implementation mechanism, tools and approaches are most effective and what capacities are available or have to be build up? Special emphasis should be put on anything which goes beyond the comfort zone of normal work. This includes initiatives that jointly address several SDGs and targets (e.g. Nexus projects) in a participative, integrative, cross sector, cross border and multilevel manner with diverse sets of stakeholders. Stakeholder should also learn from peer-to-peer exchange and from applying guidance documents, tools, methodologies and data as provided by local, national and international organizations including UN Statistical Committee, UN-Habitat, UNDP, UNECE, ESCAP, World Bank, Cities Alliance, OSCE, UCLG, ICLEI etc.

Suggestion 2 Past experience: Get informed and inspired by past experience including Local Agenda 21

In addition, through an ex-post evaluation or research it would be useful to gain a better understanding about the 6400 Local Agenda 21 initiatives launched during the Rio Process after 1992. What can we learn from their different forms, approaches, performance, failures and achievements? The outcomes could help to identify good and bad practices which could further support current activities to get the Agenda 2030 on track again.

Suggestion 3 Capacity development: Build on growing experience of the Corona pandemic

From own work experience I know that many institutions adapt and amend their on-going programmes and projects in response to the Corona pandemic. In doing so, local authorities around the world are learning how much development and prosperity in their own municipality and territory depends on global cooperation to fight the Corona pandemic. From this understanding of interdependencies to a general intensification of networking and cooperation it is just one step.

Suggestions 4 Advocacy: Boost cooperation and stakeholder networks

Unfortunately, at the level of the UN there is no representative body for all local and other subnational authorities. With the UN as an international organization where member states are represented through their national governments it is likely that dialogue about localizing the SDGs will remain limited and advocacy by local authorities for the needs of local implementation will remain a challenge. In this situation it is even more important that local authorities, professionals etc engage in networks including UCLG, Metropolis, ICLEI, ISOCARP, AESOP etc and support their work as indicated in blog post 2.

Suggestion 5 Advocacy: Don't rely on appeals and underscore the risks and costs of missing the SDG

The document libraries of UN agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations are full of recommendations like these: Get inspired by these collections of practice examples, these tool boxes, reports and guidelines. That's good! However, if there should be at any time in future an effort to dismantle the Agenda 2030 the appellative type of argumentation may not be sufficient. Instead, it might need a fact-based argumentation why the implementation of the SDG is needed and what would be the cost for the societies if goals won't be achieved. There have been some good efforts in this direction in 2020. For instance, the UN Economist Network for the UN 75th Anniversary presented in September 2020 its report "Shaping the Trends of Our Time".[1] Its main chapters include one on urbanization. That's progress but more would be needed to prove that a dismantling of the Agenda 2030 from its ambitions would be (financially or otherwise) too costly.

Suggestion 6 Policy coherence: Integrate agendas and strategies at the UN and national levels

The integration and coordination of agendas and strategies is indispensable. Without it policy coherence cannot be assured. Either it is possible to integrate development agendas at the level of international organizations or, if that is not possible, it cannot be expected that parallel agendas are implemented by local stakeholders. The integration of agendas will need both, research and, again, practice, practice, practice.

For the authors of the above-mentioned report "Shaping the Trends of Our Time" it is clear that the UN must play a central role in helping to guide the mega-trends in line with the commitments made in the 2030 Agenda. That requires coordination and integration. Prepared by UN-Habitat the main chapter on urbanization (pp 71-101) discusses trends, patterns and drivers of urbanization. Its recommendations (p 92) highlight national urban policies (NUP) and national development planning (NDP) as providers of a framework for guiding the social, environmental and economic opportunities of sustainable urbanization. With this main chapter the entire UN report underscores the potential of NUP and integrated and participators urban and territorial planning in response to global mega-trends and in achieving the Agenda 2030. It will be necessary to continue the path of coordinating national development planning with national urban and other national spatial policies. In a similar way it will be necessary to better coordinate agenda development at the level of the UN.

Suggestion 7 Management: Prevent bureaucracy through smart interface management

Nothing in my four blog posts on localizing the SDGs is intended to support the idea of a world bureaucracy or any other control system which micromanages all activities in the world. That would be a horror. Instead, I would favour a form of a loose coupling between existing institutions on all policy levels and in all relevant policy sectors. Of course, to be effective and efficient and prevent a new super bureaucracy it requires a smart interface management between policy levels, sectors of policy and stakeholder groups.

[1] https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/report-of-the-un-economist-network-for-the-un-75th-anniversary-shaping-the-trends-of-our-time.html

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Note on this series of four blog posts

Localizing the SDGs: Does the SDG Implementation Require a Reform of the Way the United Nations works?

Post 1: The UN in 2015 prepared the SDG but no appropriate enabling environment and implementation mechanism
Post 2: First efforts to localize the SDG between 2015 and 2020

Post 3: Local actors call for a seat at the table of international decision-makers to improve SDG implementation

Post 4: Does localizing SDG require a reform of the United Nations?

To read all posts of the new blog 'With burning patience' please follow this link

https://www.ugraute.de/blog-1

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Policies and Governance for Resilient and Sustainable Cities and Regions

Urban Sprawl as part of the solution for the affordable housing crisis in the USA?!

by Ulrich Graute • 14 April 2025

None of the following supports the idea that urban sprawl is required or even helpful to build sustainable cities. However, it is argued that it may be part of the solution for the crisis of affordable housing in many countries of the world. With this post, I would like to encourage a debate, eg, at the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress #WPC61 on 1-4 December 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1976 and alarmed by rapid and uncontrolled urban growth, particularly in the developing world, the UN General Assembly called for the First United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) addressing the challenges and future of human settlements. Housing remained at the focus of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme UN-Habitat ever since, and this was reconfirmed at Habitat III in Quito 2016. The New Urban Agenda recognizes and promotes a "right to the city," meaning the right of all inhabitants to have equal access to the benefits and opportunities that cities offer. It emphasizes a vision where urban spaces are designed and used collectively for the benefit of all, including those in informal settlements. Yes a vision, but overall, the Agenda is not very strategic and invites more to raising picking instead of integrated problem solving. Meanwhile, cities keep struggling to cope with fast urbanization, migration and growing demand for larger apartments. Urban sprawl is criticized since the 1950s and 60s because of its large demand for land. No densely populated urban areas have higher costs for the water, energy and transportation grid. In addition, developers often focus on profitable housing development while they don’t care for urban infrastructure, public spaces, schools etc. The New Urban Agenda promotes urban density as a key strategy for sustainable and efficient urban development but that doesn’t help those who a looking for housing now. Conor Dougherty is the author of the book Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream published on 10 April 2025 in the New York Times the article “Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it.” He doesn’t make any effort to paint urban sprawl in rosy colors. Instead, he describes how eg in Princeton, Texas, the nation’s third-fastest-growing city, infrastructure has struggled to keep up with growth. He analyzes how difficult and slow-moving densification efforts in cities are and states, “Even if all the regulatory restraints were removed tomorrow, developers couldn’t find enough land to satisfy America’s housing needs inside established areas. Consequently, much of the nation’s housing growth has moved to states in the South and Southwest, where a surplus of open land and willingness to sprawl has turned the Sun Belt into a kind of national sponge that sops up housing demand from higher-cost cities. The largest metro areas there have about 20 percent of the nation’s population, but over the past five years they have built 42 percent of the nation’s new single-family homes, according to a recent report by Cullum Clark, an economist at the George W. Bush Institute, a research center in Dallas.” For instance, Celina, Texas (picture), has 54,000 residents, compared with 8,000 just a decade ago, and the population is projected to hit 110,000 by 2030. The lack of urbane infrastructure, employment, greenery, and community is striking, but people keep coming because of affordability. While planners and others prefer denser and walkable neighbourhoods like 15-minute-cities, the money to build related infrastructure in addition to houses is often missing or would reduce affordability. A dilemma. There are good reasons to criticize the trend described for the US by Conor Dougherty, but it provides a chance to attain affordable housing for people who cannot find it elsewhere. And the history of these satellite towns has demonstrated that the missing infrastructure, employment and community can be added lateron. It seems, urban sprawl is not the solution, but it might be part of the solution, isn’t it? Let's discuss this here or later on other occasions, like eg the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress 'Cities & Regions in Action: Planning Pathways to Resilience and Quality of Life 1-4 December 2025, in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia #WPC61. Reference: Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it. By Conor Dougherty. The New York Times, April 10, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/magazine/suburban-sprawl-texas.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We need the United Nations to be part of the solution, not of the problem

by Ulrich Graute • 8 March 2025

Picture: UN photo

Anatomy of an AI System

by Ulrich Graute • 25 February 2025

Click to see the map in the full scale or download map in pdf format here https://anatomyof.ai/img/ai-anatomy-map.pdf.

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition

by Ulrich Graute • 22 February 2025

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition (English with German captatio ns) Deutsch: Ulrich spricht darüber, wie es ist, in Zeiten von Umbruch, Wandel und vielfachen Krisen als erfahrener Berater zu arbeiten. Obwohl die Situation nicht einfach ist, kann man daraus auch Chancen für effizientere Institutionen und Unternehmen sehen. Erfahrung und Flexibilität sind dabei wichtig, um neue Wege zu finden. English: Ulrich talks about working as an experienced consultant in times of upheaval, change, and multiple crises. Although the situation is not easy, we can also see opportunities for more efficient institutions and companies. Experience and flexibility are important to find new pathways.

Urban politics, planning and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI

by Ulrich Graute • 12 February 2025

"The development of highly capable AI is likely to be the biggest event in human history. The world must act decisively to ensure it is not the last event in human history. This conference, and the cooperative spirit of the AI Summit series, give me hope; but we must turn hope into action, soon, if there is to be a future we would want our children to live in." Professor Stuart Russell, IASEAI President and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley Please join me on 13 February 2025 at ARCS 9.0 for my keynote on 'Urban politics, planning, and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI' The two weeks before my conference presentation were full of dynamics in the field of AI, its politics, and development. First came the launch of the 500 billion US$ Stargate Project in the USA, followed by the launch of the Chinese open-source large language model (LLM) DeepSeek. On 6 February the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI held its inaugural conference in Paris, France. Prominent AI scientists including Stuart Russel and the 2024 Physics Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton called for international cooperation to ensure safe and ethical artificial intelligence. On 10 and 11 February 2025, France co-chaired by India hosted the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris. The speeches by Heads of State and Government including the President of France, the Prime Minister of India, the President of the EU Commission, and the US Vice President gave the impression of how different countries of the world try to position themselves in a race for AI leadership. Urban politics, planning, and economy, not only in the Global South, need longer-term frameworks. How should digital transformation and urban planning be approached in cities facing multiple crises and the new wave of AI technological innovation? The latter is according to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others unprecedented in scale and speed but it is expected to affect all spheres of life. ARCS 9.0 schedule and Zoom link for Inaugural, plenaries and Valedictory. Date - 13th Feb to 15th Feb 2025 Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95336599575?pwd=NExxgf8gBoubEfKRhhtbalM1ZYjQph.1 Meeting ID: 953 3659 9575

The 500 bn US$ Stargate Project - Places seem to matter more, Urban Planning and AI governance less or not at all

by Ulrich Graute • 22 January 2025

Source of the picture OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

Learning to work hands-on for peace from former US-President Jimmy Carter

by Ulrich Graute • 1 January 2025

It was a tremendous privilege in my life to meet Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter for the first time in 1984 (picture) and then again in the summer of 1985 during my internship at Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia (USA). Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39th president of the U.S. from 1977 to 1981, died on December 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Ga. Jimmy Carter was a lifelong farmer who worked with his hands building houses for the poor well into his 90s. I didn't agree with him on all issues (the early 1980s were the time of a new US missile deployment in Germany ordered by Jimmy Carter and a large peace movement against it) but he took the time to discuss it with me and others at Koinonia Farm. That alone was amazing. Even more mind-blowing was that he continued hands-on work on peacebuilding and house renovation for the poor around the world with Habitat for Humanity International well into his 90s. If in my career providing hands-on support became more important than climbing my own career path, this was also due to the example Jimmy Carter gave in the decades after his Presidency. I learned a lot from him about working for peace with humbleness, love, and perseverance. Read more in the New York Times about why Jimmy Carter was known as much for his charity and diplomatic work later in life as he was for his single presidential term, which ended in 1981. https://lnkd.in/d9qxSmTM *. *. *. *. * Note: This post was first published on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/graute_learning-to-work-hands-on-for-peace-from-activity-7279396908270309376-BBjV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

The United Nations risks drowning in its mandates, conferences and external expectations. Could Artificial Intelligence help the UN?

by Ulrich Graute • 2 December 2024

In 2024, for the first time since 2000, the Parties to the United Nations Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification faced a very busy 3 months, moving from large Conferences of Parties (COP) in Cali (Colombia) for biodiversity in October to Baku (Azerbaijan) for climate in November to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) for desertification in December. On top of this Triple-COP, there was the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN Summit of the Future in September in New York (USA) while UN-Habitat held its World Urban Forum in Cairo (Egypt), and let’s not forget the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5) which ended last weekend in Busan, South Korea. No real breakthroughs were reported but I noticed many promises to double future efforts. There is a lot that can be critically reviewed about the events, eg what’s the purpose of moving approximately 100.000+ delegates, UN staffers, and other participants worldwide if the necessary political will to agree and resources available are insufficient and the outcomes are limited accordingly? But such a critique would be a bit unfair since I don’t know how many new ideas and initiatives were born during those official meetings, side events, and informal chats that might bloom up in upcoming years despite of the multicrises we’re living in. What needs to be criticized is that the UN System is not progressing on its task to implement its many mandates more “synergistically” by targeting policies, programs, and initiatives to jointly address the goals of the Rio Conventions, SDGs, etc. Instead, the conferences referred to each other but worked mainly within their silos. This is not appropriate in a world full of interrelations and interdepensies. Well, no individual or group can follow up on every aspect, and swarm intelligence of conferences with thousands of participants each seems to be no functioning alternative. But what else could be done? To give an example: How about building an AI-based Large Language Model (LLM) trained with the UN Charter, all UN declarations, national and subnational resolutions, regulations, and programmes? AI Agents for the different conventions and agendas should then be asked to coordinate and propose “synergistic” proposals across policy levels. Of course, the use of artificial intelligence should be wisely supervised by a team of AI experts and professionals from all affected fields. I wouldn’t expect AI applications to solve all problems but to better inform decision-makers and UN agencies on integrated scenarios. This could help to increase efficiency, avoid duplicating efforts, and increase the overall problem-solving capacity of the UN. I would be happy to support such work with my governance and development experience across all policy levels. Picture source: https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/cop-nature-climate-adaptation-mitigation

THE GLOBAL STAGE FOR CITIES AND REGIONS AT THE UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE BAKU (COP29), NOVEMBER 2024

by Ulrich Graute • 14 November 2024

Since the first climate COP in 1995, the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency has been representing local and regional governments at the processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The LGMA also represents ISOCARP - International Society of City and Regional Planners and Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability acts as the Focal Point of LGMA. The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a turning point, recognizing the essential role of these governments in enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions NDSs and driving transformative climate action. The LGMA is atively present in Baku with a robust agenda, numerous partners, and an esteemed delegation of political leaders representing local and subnational governments. At the center of the presence is the Multilevel Action & Urbanization Pavilion as the global stage for the city and region climate agenda during COP29. The Pavilion brings into focus not only the challenges and needs, but also the accomplishments and commitments of local and subnational actors on climate action. The Pavilion is open from 12 to 22 November in the Blue Zone, Area E, Pavilion I15. We are looking forward to welcoming you at the High-Level Opening on 12 November at 10:00 AM. Please find the agenda of LGMA attached. Please visit also the Youtube channel of ICLEI Global for daily updates https://lnkd.in/dddDCKtA Ulrich Graute - ISOCARP Online Delegate at COP29 and Chair of the ISOCARP Scientific Committee

Planning New Inclusive Cities using Smart Tech and Artificial Intelligence

by Ulrich Graute • 19 October 2024

Report on the Urban Conversation on Ethical Use of AI in Urban Planning at the 60th World Planning Congress in Siena, Italy on 11 OCTOBER 2024