S U S T A I N A B L E   C I T I E S

The European Environment Agency (EEA) estimates that an average European city of one million inhabitants requires 11,500 tonnes of fossil fuels, 320,000 tonnes of water and 2,000 tonnes of food every day. It also produces 300,000 tonnes of wastewater, 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 1,600 tonnes of solid waste ... daily.

One result is a long list of increasing environment stresses Ñ loss of green areas, poor air quality and increased energy use, to name a few. Stress due to increased car transport, which rose by 5.5 percent in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in 1994 alone, is a particularly aggravating problem, says the EEA.

In Katowice, Poland (population 350,000), local authorities are searching for investors to modernise their public tram lines. And while construction of a modern hospital waste plant is praised as a local success story, the city's old sewage system continues to flood basements, used tires are piling up and urban greenspace is limited. "The challenges require enormous sums of money, new technologies and international aid," said Piotr Uszok of the City Council of Katowice.

A major response to managing urban stress in Europe and CEE has been the growing interest among local authorities, including Katowice, in the European Cities and Towns Campaign, a Europe-wide initiative currently involving over 400 European local authorities, from Reykjavik, Iceland to Corfu, Greece. Five international networks of local authorities are associated with the campaign: the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, Eurocities, the Healthy Cities Network of the World Health Organisation, the United Towns Organisation and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Main funding support is from the EU's environmental directorate, DGXI. The main goal of the campaign is to foster sustainable cities through Local Agenda 21 actions among its members. What's a sustainable city? Simply put, it's a city that works, and a Local Agenda 21 is a plan for keeping a municipality's future economic development in harmony with its environmental and social needs and limitations.

The importance of Local Agenda 21 for cities and towns was highlighted in Chapter 28 of Agenda 21, the landmark document evolving from the 1992 UN World Environment and Development Conference. Chapter 28 states that "local authorities in each country should have undertaken a consultative process with their population and achieved a consensus on a Local Agenda 21 for their community" by 1996.

The European Cities and Towns Campaign was launched in May 1994 at the First European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns in Aalborg, Denmark. 80 authorities signed the Aalborg Charter, committing themselves to long-term action plans toward sustainability and implementing Local Agenda 21 processes. 29 CEE and NIS municipalities have now signed the Aalborg Charter from Tirana, Albania to Tartu, Estonia.

The Second European Sustainable Cities conference was held in Lisbon in 1996, attracting over 1,000 local and regional representatives who assessed progress made since Aalborg and agreed on the Lisbon Action Plan.

In Lisbon, the decision to hold four regional conferences between 1998-99 was also made, meant to better understand the specific urban problems of the north, south, east and west European regions. The first was held in Turku, Finland, in September 1998, where all Baltic cities agreed to begin Local Agenda 21 actions before 2000. The second, covering CEE, southeast Europe and NIS, was recently held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Mediterranean region was covered in January 1999 in Seville, Spain. Western Europe will be assessed this summer in The Hague, Netherlands. The Third Pan-European Conference will be held February 2000 in Hanover, Germany.

The Sofia conference, entitled Towards Local Sustainability in Central and Eastern Europe, attracted some 280 municipal representatives and environmental experts from 70 cities and 30 countries. Objectives were two-fold. The first was to look at current local sustainable development initiatives and stimulate new ones in the CEE region. The second was to raise awareness of the local implications of EU accession and EU funding opportunities.

CEE urban sustainability

Conference participants composed a set of priority issues and recommendations to guide their sustainable development work into the future, entitled the Sofia Statement (see box). The conference was also a place for CEE and NIS cities and towns to talk about their common local problems and strategies.

Bulgaria's Municipal Energy Efficiency Network "EcoEnergy," a voluntary association of Bulgarian municipalities established in 1997, was discussed by network coordinator Valia Peeva. Among its activities, the association promotes local energy-saving policies, influences national energy policy and disseminates information about energy-efficient technologies. "Municipalities will receive the responsibility for managing district heating systems," said Peeva.

As part of Bulgaria's Capacity 21 Program for Sustainable Development, the communities of Velingrad and Asenovgrad were selected for Local Agenda 21 pilot projects. "The process itself helped them to build their self-confidence and local capacities to define their own visions and strategies," said national program coordinator Tanya Shoumkova. Local actions included public hearings and workshops on communications skills and sustainable agriculture.

In line with the EC's push for subsidiarity, conference participants emphasised that local authorities need adequate powers delegated to them from the state, to effectively implement sustainable development. "Europe should respect the principle of subsidiarity and decisions should be made as close as possible to local citizens," said Dimitrios Avramopoulos, Mayor of Athens. Avramopoulos cited Greece's move, following the demise of its former dictatorship, to politically strengthen its local municipalities by reducing their numbers, through amalgamations, from 5,500 to 1,000.

Partnerships between east and west are a common Local Agenda 21 strategy, such as that between the provincial government of Carinthia, Austria, and the city of Chernovtsy, Ukraine. As a result, an EUR 35 million plan was drawn up for resolving Chernovtsy's water problems which result mainly from organic pollutants in the local Dnestr River.

In the end, the Bulgarian Capacity 21 program recognised that sustainability requires fundamental changes in human attitudes and behaviour, which requires time and human energy. The Chernovtsy plan, however, highlighted another main barrier to implementing sustainable development at home Ñ money. (See conference report or visit ICLEI's website at )

The sofia statement Selected key policies and issues made by urban representatives after the conference: The vital role of local authorities in designing and implementing national and international sustainable development strategies is emphasised. We will strive for democratic institutions and more public participation. NGOs continue to have a crucial role in the process. Unequal access to resources and power during the transition period has increased social disparities. Appealing but unsustainable patterns must be avoided. 29 CEE municipalities have adopted the Aalborg Charter and joined the Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign. We will create more sustainable infrastructures and services, such as separate waste collection and co-generation, and try to stop urban sprawl and increased road traffic. We call on national governments to ensure local self-governance and its corresponding powers and resources according to the principle of subsidiarity. We need continued financial support from abroad and a mutual exchange of experiences.

More Sustainable Cities ahead...

The Bulletin now takes a deeper look at the environmental problems of two major CEE cities, Sofia and Budapest, the local implications and costs of joining the EU and some awards which are available for the region's most successfully sustainable cities and towns.