At the opening ceremony, Mr. Zhao Xinli, the Vice Director General of China Science and Technology Exchange Center, Ministry of Science and Technology, said that, “Chinese and African cities are facing common problems such as low utilization rate of resources and heavy pollution in the development, which constrains city’s sustainable development. We believe that this workshop will provide new ideas and support for greener development of cities, in the process of which technology innovation serves as the driving force to cultivate green innovation talent, introduce high-end technology, and thus contribute to substantive cooperation and seek common development.”

Mr. Jin Chen, Secretary-General of Shanghai Municipal Urban-rural Development and Management Commission, said that “Shanghai has some experiences to share with African countries in its process of forging a green and sustainable development path.”

This workshop is hosted by UNEP, UN-Habitat and Tongji University, with the support from Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Collaborative Innovation Center for Clean Water organize the workshop.

 “The collaboration between Tongji University and UNEP has seen fruitful outcomes through the UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD). Now Tongji would like to work together with UNEP and UN-Habitat and African countries to complement capacity building and cooperation on project level, which will facilitate South-South Cooperation.” Said Prof Wu Jiang, the Vice President of Tongji and Dean of UNEP-Tongji IESD.

Mr. Munyaradzi Chenje, Director of UNEP Regional Support Office said, “UNEP concentrates on promoting economic exchanges, capacity building and technology transfer between global southern countries through South-South Cooperation. We believe that this workshop will further promote substantive cooperation between the South on the basis of UNEP and Shanghai Municipal Government’s cooperation on Green EXPO and Chongming Eco-island construction evaluation.

Ms. Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, Director of UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa said that, “as the birthplace of World Cities Day, Shanghai has much experience and technology in the implementation of smart green cities, and will promote the development of African countries and regions through resource sharing.”

On October 31st last year, the launching ceremony of the first “World Cities Day” was held in Shanghai. It is reported that the " World Cities Day" was firstly put forward through the Shanghai Declaration during the World EXPO 2010. The 68th UN General Assembly decided to set October 31st as “World Cities Day” to encourage human’s pursuit for innovation and harmonious development of cities.

Recognizing the importance of urban development issues in the global environmental agenda, the UNEP and the UN-Habitat have combined their professional networks and technical capacity in a Greener Cities Partnership focusing mostly on three programme priorities for the period 2014-2016: (1) resilient, resource efficient cities, (2) sustainable transport and mobility; (3) solid waste and waste water management; and (4) sustainable buildings and construction. This workshop is a step to consolidate this partnership.

Representatives from Yaoundé (Cameroon), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kiambu County (Kenya), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), Niamey (Niger), Kampala (Uganda), Lusaka (Zambia), Harare (Zimbabwe), etc., including 4 mayors, 2 deputy mayors and nearly 20 directors and deputy directors for environmental protection and urban development attended the ceremony.

The one-week workshop discussed several modules including sustainable city, urban planning, water management, waste management, energy efficiency and green buildings. Besides, filed trip of Kun Shan City, participants exchanged the experience in urban planning and management of natural resources.

Editor’s Note:

1.       UNEP Environmental Assessment Report for EXPO 2010 (Shanghai, China)

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=594&ArticleID=6271&l=en&t=long

Full Text:

http://www.unep.org/pdf/PressReleases/SHANGHAI_REPORT_FullReport.pdf

2.       International Evaluation of Chongming Eco-island (Shanghai)：

http://www.unep.org/newscentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2692&ArticleID=9259&l=zh

3.       UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD)

http://unep-iesd.tongji.edu.cn/index.php?classid=168