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4th November 2008, Nanjing, China
Round Table for Parliamentarians: "Cities and Climate Change"
Götz with members of the Round Table for Parliamentarians at the World Urban Development Conference 4.
Honored Ministers,
Distinguished Delegates,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to you all, to this Round Table for Parliamentarians. I am very pleased that 4th World Urban Forum has provided us with this opportunity get together. It is also a great pleasure to be able to make a small contribution to the overall forum in this way.
The Global Parliamentarians on Habitat is an international organisation of parliamentarians which is mainly concerned with the sustainable development of urban settlements. The group was founded over thirty years ago in Vancouver and has since been working in close cooperation with UN-Habitat.
This year in Bucharest I became president of our parliamentarians’ organisation when I took over the task from my friend and colleague, Senator Eloy Cantu Segovia of Mexico.
I would like to take this opportunity today to express my gratitude to Senator Eloy Cantu Segovia for his outstanding leadership and excellent teamwork.
The greatest social, political and economical challenges which we face in the next ten years or so will be, among others, Climate Change and the Energy Crisis.
Municipalities and Business need to adapt to this changed framework. Examples of areas in which they can start adapting are municipal construction planning, energy-efficiency strategies and the development of so-called Master Plans.
In this context, we would like to discuss the following:
1. What the challenges are which your region is experiencing as a result of climate change
2. What role parliamentarians can play in addressing the issue of climate change through adoption of national policies, legislation and ensuring implementation in their respective countries
3. What the parliamentarians can do to promote public awareness on climate change
Other questions which we would like to answer today are as follows:
4. What measures do you personally recommend to be taken by cities to address climate change?
5. How can climate change be brought to the top of the agenda by respective governments?
6. How can we involve all partners including youth and women to address the issue of climate change?
In summary, what are your recommendations for action by parliaments through their parliamentary work to address climate change?
We have time for this discussion until 5 p.m..
After the conclusion of this Roundtable at 5, I would like to ask all Parliamentarians to remain in this venue. We, the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat, would like to talk to you about the role of our organisation and to discuss our future.
We regularly meet at national, regional and global level. This World Urban Forum in Nanjing offers us a good opportunity not only to do our part to make this conference a success, but also to gather together and coordinate our own work at international level.
Before we begin this session, I want to provide you with some information on the activities of the Parliamentarians from the European continent. The European Global Parliamentarians on Habitat have initiated a study on the changes in legislation which have been affected in various countries since the Habitat Agenda was decided in 1996 in Istanbul, 10 years ago. The countries in question were Finland, the Netherlands, Rumania, Turkey and Germany. The results were presented in Vancouver at the World Urban Conference 3.
In a workshop this year in April in Bucharest the study was extended towards a number of Eastern European Countries. On World Habitat Day in Berlin this year, the results of this study were presented. Those who are interested in obtaining the results of this study are invited to provide us with their e-mail address on the list which we will send around the room shortly.
I would now like to open this round table with the contribution the former president of the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat and current president of The Global Parliamentarians of the American Continent, Senator Eloy Cantu Segovia.