adminSUVA. — Fiji has called for global attention to sustainable urban development on behalf of the Group of 77 at the United Nations, the Fijian government said yesterday.
Speaking at the UN yesterday in Fiji’s capacity as 2013 chair of the Group of 77 plus China, Fijian ambassador Peter Thomson said that sustainable urban development has become “one of the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century”, calling for sustainable cities to be given all due attention in the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda, according to the Ministry of Information.
Thomson told the UN General Assembly’s Second Committee that “a demographic revolution is moving hunger and poverty problems in developing countries from rural to urban areas”, underscoring that with about 50 percent of the global population already living in cities, the process of urbanization remains rapid, especially in Africa and Asia.
At the Rio+20 Conference of 2012, world leaders recognized the importance of sustainable cities and sustainable urbanisation, the Fijian diplomat said, adding that G77 holds the view that for such sustainability to be achieved, a holistic approach is required, with attention on affordable housing, social services, infrastructure, slum-upgrading and urban regeneration.
Thomson expressed the group’s deep concern on the continuing increase in the number of urban slum dwellers in the world, saying that the group’s concern extends to the negative impact of environmental degradation in human settlement and the increasing vulnerability of urban settlers to natural and human-made disasters. — Xinhua.
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