Both in the lead-up to and following on the heels of October’s Habitat III conference on sustainable cities, there has been a renewed interest around the world in promoting national urban policies. This interest stems from an increasing recognition of the importance of such policies for multiple purposes at multiple levels of government. These include, […]
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel had a swift response to President Donald Trump’s administration pulling climate change information from federal websites: The city has posted the deleted content on its own domain, and called on other mayors to do the same. “The Trump administration can attempt to erase decades of work from scientists and federal employees […]
Philadelphia City Council Member Cindy Bass was already thinking about how to cut the city’s ties with Wells Fargo when bank CEO John Stumpf testified last September before the U.S. Senate. Questioning Stumpf about the bank’s fraudulent accounts scandal, Senator Elizabeth Warren said, “So you haven’t resigned, you haven’t returned a single nickel of your […]
The Chilean government’s innovation lab — Laboratorio de Gobierno [link in Spanish], or “LabGob” for short — was formally established in 2015. Since then, it has worked with thousands of civil servants and citizens in Chile, using an iterative, human-centered design approach to tackle problems in health care, energy, and more. Emily Middleton spoke to […]
ACEEE is a nonprofit focused on research, policy and advocacy around energy efficiency in the public and private sectors. The scorecard ranks the 51 largest U.S. cities based on five criteria: local government operations, community-wide initiatives, building policies, energy and water utilities, and transportation policies. During the Wednesday launch of the new scorecard, ACEEE staff […]
Cities must prepare for a greater political role, but without retreating into isolation. This is the opinion of Arthur De Grave, veteran member of the OuiShare Collective, who will be tackling the question of cities as self-contained polities at the OuiShare Fest 2017. Founded in 2012 to decrypt and approach the dynamics of the collaborative […]
Representatives from local and regional government networks gathered in Istanbul on 24 April for the meeting of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), under the theme “The global development agendas, implications for local governments”, upon the invitation of Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul and Chair of UNACLA. UNACLA is the fruition of […]
Two of Italy’s wealthiest regions, Lombardy and Veneto, have announced plans for referendums aimed at obtaining greater independence. The referendums will take place on October 22nd, the regions announced on Friday – and although the results of the vote will not be legally binding, they could have major implications for Italy’s general election next year. […]
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If the world’s cities are truly going to embark on a more sustainable path, they’re going to need a lot of advice. That’s where the Coalition for Urban Transitions comes in. A new think tank jointly managed by the World Resources Institute and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the coalition will draw on academic, […]