Bilbao (EFE).- A hundred world experts draft a document in Bilbao that evaluates the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 11, with the challenges towards more sustainable cities, which will be added to the review of the other SDGs in July in New York.
The meeting has the participation of 102 representatives from all over the world of academia, members of the Basque Executive and Spain, as well as representatives of global associations, along with various UN agencies.
Its objective is to prepare a first draft of the evaluation of progress towards inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements, in accordance with the targets of SDG 11.
Specifically, this challenge seeks to ensure, by 2030, everyone’s access to housing and basic services, and provide safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems.
Likewise, SDG 11 proposes increasing inclusive urbanization and redoubling efforts to protect the cultural and natural heritage of cities, among other goals.
The Bilbao meeting has been convened by the United Nations (UN) through the Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Development Program (UNDP), with the support of the Basque Government.
Assessment of the SDGs in New York
The Basque Government’s Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda, Ignacio de la Puerta, explained that this meeting is in preparation for the high-level meeting to be held in July in New York.
There the 192 states that make up the United Nations Organization will meet and a review of the 17 SDGs will be carried out.
For this reason, Bilbao is preparing the main review analysis report on how the Sustainable Development Goal number 11 regarding urban environments is being developed.
In addition, progress in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) at the global level will be reviewed.
Bilbao, world headquarters of the urban agenda
Last October, the permanent headquarters of the Secretariat of the Local Coalition 2030, a UN body created to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda in municipalities and regions and in the coming dates must be determined who will assume the direction of the office.
De la Puerta has highlighted the importance of the reflection that is taking place in Bilbao and has assured that the Basque Country “has been the spearhead” in this debate, after the articulation of its own Urban Agenda for the Basque Country – Bultzatu 2050.
“We are working on the implementation of the urban agenda and on the definition of indicators that allow us to measure if we are doing well, and also studying the main challenges that we as a society have until 2050, from the sociological and demographic sphere”, he stated.
He has warned that the Basque Country “in one of the countries with the lowest birth rate and the highest aging rate”, so “we have a major challenge there”, although this community does not have the challenge of depopulation in the area rural as “emptied Spain”.
Another of the challenges in Euskadi will be to propose solutions to climate change, since “70% of the Basque population lives in areas affected by the coast and will be affected by changes in the elevation of the sea”.
“And floods are already being recorded, for example, in Txingudi, in Zumaia and in municipalities through which the Nervión passes,” he said.
The Basque Country was one of the first regions to implement an urban agenda and, of course, it is “paving the way” in terms of developing its urban agenda and in monitoring actions aimed at overcoming challenges, he concluded. EFE