14:00 - 15:30 CAT |Mar 23, 2021

To build sustainable cities valuing water is a pivotal discussion to inspire action in African cities. This session aims to showcase innovation, success and lessons learnt from projects that aim to redirect how we value water toward collective action in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 6.

While it has previously been referred to as ‘the ugliest city of the Netherlands’, Rotterdam is now leaving its legacy behind. The city has now invested €233 million to make seven different awesome green city improvements. The focus is specifically on adding green spaces into the city.

This article details the Swedish government experiment with the ‘one-minute city’ gives priority to pedestrians and cyclists. The aim is to investigate what happens when cars are displaced, and how every street in Sweden could be healthy, sustainable and vibrant by 2030.

Melbourne and Canberra provide some useful examples of the green cities movement, but to make it mainstream, these techniques need to be adopted widely through policies supporting more holistic and better integrated urban planning.

This World Economic Forum report promotes an integrated approach as the solution to decarbonizing urban areas. The approach highlights that, as urbanization is tipped to grow, more action needs to be taken by cities to achieve net-zero emissions and slow down rising earth temperatures.

The Dasgupta Review puts biodiversity at its core and provides the compass that we urgently need. In doing so, it shows us how, by bringing economics and ecology together, we can help save the natural world at what may be the last minute – and in doing so, save ourselves.

How COVID19 has put Barcelona's urban greening plan in the fast lane: The Catalan city is planning to roll out a large-scale plan to tackle its longstanding problems of pollution and lack of public space in its central district.

Integrating native plants and greenspaces into local urban areas is central to our biodiversity master plan. Urban greenspace and landscape beautification are also proven to reduce levels of anxiety and stress.