Our next steps towards a sustainable urban world

ICLEI Communiqué to the local, subnational, national and global community
on the New Urban Agenda
Habitat 3, Quito, Ecuador, 14 October 2016
1. We, the representatives in the ICLEI Network of 1500 cities, towns and regions have cometogether at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
Development (Habitat 3) to endorse the adoption of the “New Urban Agenda” by ournations.
2. We welcome the New Urban Agenda and its comprehensive guidance on integrated
sustainable urban and territorial development; the commitment to enhanced engagementwith local and subnational governments; and new concepts like the ‘Right to the City’.
3. Through the adoption of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable
Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa
Action Agenda for Financing Development, the “Paris Climate Agreement”, and, now, withthe New Urban Agenda, our nations set bold, new impetus to achieve planetary, globallyinclusive, sustainable development in the next 15 years.
4. Since 1992, the ICLEI Network has localized the vision of sustainable development throughLocal Agenda 21 processes and similar local sustainability planning in thousands of cities,
towns and regions worldwide. We have demonstrated how our local action can drive
global progress and debates. We have learned that the ways we plan, operate and govern
our urban areas impact all: urban, rural and global citizens as well as our globalenvironment.
The global spread of the models and achievements of our pioneer cities are needed now
more than ever.
5. The ICLEI Network is fully committed to implement and advance the New Urban Agenda,
the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable development and the SDGs, in particular SDG 11 on
sustainable, resilient, inclusive and safe cities, as well as the Paris Climate Agreement tomake our own commitments a worldwide reality. We will use these universal frameworks
to lead change in our jurisdictions. Our ambition is to support our Members to bemotivators, accelerators and multipliers to deepen comprehensive local sustainability
action as well as expand it to even more cities, towns and regions. Our responses willcount globally.
6. We will build a global roadmap on new urban sustainability for the next 15 years, using
the 10 Urban Agendas of the ICLEI Network as well as the New Urban Agenda, the 2030
Agenda on Sustainable development, the Sustainable Development Goals and SDG 11, andthe Paris Climate Agreement as follows:
6.1 With our 10 Urban Agendas and the related methods, tools, capacity building, solution
gateways, communities and networks in the ICLEI Network, we will continue to equip
our Members and their partners worldwide and we will spread our local solutions tocommon challenges such as rapid urbanization, fossil-fuel driven climate change, andgrowing societal inequality.

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6.2 We will expand our ambitious, integrated and multi-stakeholder approaches andinvolve thousands more cities, towns and regions towards achieving urban
sustainability and the goals of the new multilateral frameworks. We will support thesecities, towns and regions to initiate and strengthen own Urban Agendas mechanisms.
6.3 We are highly committed to work in partnership with all sectors such as ourresearchers, private sector, financial institutions, civil society and nationalgovernments. Local Sustainability Alliances can be mechanisms to intensively include
stakeholders and citizens in local transformation processes.
6.4 Our ICLEI Network will lead and support at least 20 cities each year to demonstrate
exemplary integrated and long-term sustainability in local and regional decision
making. We will establish a mentorship group of “top performing cities”, and connect
members of this group in one-to-one partnerships with a “performance partner city”.
We will act as pioneers and examples that encourage replication.
6.5 ICLEI will act as training and capacity building engine. We will reach out to many local
and regional governments around the world each year and involve them in peer-topeer exchanges and knowledge transfer with our Members. We are eager to support
the establishment of global hubs for urban sustainability training.
6.6 We will urge our central governments to implement the New Urban Agenda byproviding us with country specific supportive frameworks quickly. Our ICLEI Network
will link with national and sub-national enabling frameworks and push for vertical
integration to raise ambitions and accelerate actions. We need strong urban
development policies, legislation, incentives, financial mechanisms, and national leadcities programs.
6.7 We will report on our commitments and actions so as to encourage replication,demonstrate transparency and prove our collective impact. We report to the carbonn
Climate Registry and demonstrate our collective impact through the Global Covenantof Mayors for Climate & Energy. We will work closely with the next UN Secretary
General, the United Nations Environment Assembly and the High-Level PoliticalForum. Our goal is that the whole process will conclude with an enhanced
engagement of local and regional governments in the global governance ofsustainability.
6.8 In undertaking the above actions in the ICLEI Network, we reaffirm our commitment
to reach 30% of the global urban population by 2030 and 50% by 2050. All cities,towns and regions are invited to join us in this path. We will come together at theICLEI World Congress 2018 in Montréal, Canada in June 2018 to take stock of ourprogress and continue charting our path.
7. This Communiqué has been informed by the “Seoul Communiqué 2016 for the New
Climate Regime”, delivered by Mayor of Seoul and ICLEI President Park Won Soon at theSeoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change on 1 to 2 September 2016.

Contact:
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability

ICLEI Communiqué on the New Urban Agenda

Email: habitat3@iclei.org

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