Harmonious cities - UN-Habitat

dren about what to do in the event of a hurricane.
Every year there’s a two-day training
exercise in risk education and people perform
hurricane drills; practicing packing
up their belongings and evacuating their
homes. Each neighbourhood has someone
responsible for ensuring that all inhabitants
are aware of approaching storms and that
they can get to shelter. Farmers also herd
their animals to high ground.
A recent UN report quotes Salvano Briceno,
Director of the International Secretariat
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) in Geneva,
the United Nations body that focuses on disaster
reduction. “The Cuban way could easily
be applied to other countries with similar
economic conditions and even in countries
with greater resources that do not manage
to protect their population as well as Cuba
does,” says Briceno.
However, disaster management does not
stop once the storm has subsided. After
such a devastating hurricane season, Cuba
is in need of international help. UK charity
Oxfam estimates that close to 30,000 homes
have been destroyed. The urgency now is to
re-equip the people of Cuba with the tools
they need to rebuild their infrastructure
and regenerate their farmland. But at least,
thanks to Cuba’s intelligent disaster management
planning, most of the population
is still alive and able to work on rebuilding
their future. u
troops in Chad, but it is not their role to act
as police, but to protect civilians in danger.
MINURCAT reported in September 2008
that they had plans to train a further 500
Chadian police, and their first deployment
of 70 national police and gendarmes began
their initial investigation of eastern Chad on
16 September.
Secretary-General Ban has praised
MINURCAT for the progress made so far,
but in order to enforce law and order and
create a more secure society, much larger
numbers of professionally trained police will
be needed. Ban said: “Regional and local tensions,
poverty, weak institutions and poor
infrastructure compound the difficulties
faced by local authorities in finding peaceful
and sustainable mechanisms to address the
causes and consequences of insecurity and
London’s congestion charge already
cuts CO 2 emissions by 16 percent,
but to improve on this London
wants to cut carbon emissions by 60 percent
by 2025. Plans are already underway to encourage
London’s population to take up cycling
as a means of getting around the city.
The first stage of the plan means that 6,000
bikes will be available every 300 metres,
and signposted cycle routes will link all key
areas of the city. The C40 climate leadership
group report that the cycling plan will make
a “significant contribution to tackling climate
change, aiming to have one in 10 Londoners
making a round trip by bike each day, and
saving some 1.6 million tonnes of CO 2 (equivalent
to driving round the M25 55 million
times) per year as Londoners increasingly
choose to walk or cycle for short trips instead
of taking their car.”
Dalkia and Honeywell, world leaders in energy
efficiency have been brought in to help
cut energy use in Greater London Authority
buildings by 25 percent. In fact, all public sector
buildings in the city are being offered the
chance to work with Dalkia and Honeywell.
News
URBAN WATCH
Climate change
London sets
ambitious targets for
2025
The C40 Cities group report that “London’s
commercial and public sector buildings alone
produce around 15 million tonnes of CO 2 per
year and account for 33 percent of total London
emissions.”
Cities are high on the list of culprits when
it comes to producing the CO 2 emissions
that scientists say are contributing to global
warming. Eighty percent of greenhouse gas
emissions come from the world’s cities, but
those same cities only cover one percent of
the earth’s surface, according to the C40 Cities
group. “Indeed, it is no coincidence that
climate change is emerging at the forefront
of international debate at the same time,
and virtually at the same pace, as the world
becomes urbanised,” says UN-HABITAT’s
Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka. “It
was why I pointed out in my report to the UN
Economic and Social Council in 2007 that
reducing the vulnerability of cities to the effects
of climate change should and needs to
be viewed as an opportunity to improve the
living conditions of the most vulnerable segments
of our urban populations.” u
violence.” u London’s congestion charge cut CO 2 emissions by 16 percent Ph o t o © kei t h ro P er
u r b a n
November 2008 WORLD 47