At 9:00 am Beijing time on July 13, 2015, the Guidelines for Sustainable Cities and Communities(Guiding Principles)/SUC Guidelines, mainly prepared by the UN Environment(UNEP), was released in Beijing. Main author and reviewers of SUC Guidelines/experts of GAPSCC attended the release conference as well as the International Forum on Sustainable Cities and Communities to discuss the follow-up preparation, promotion and implementation of SUC Guidelines.
More than 300 people, including representatives from the UN System, 13 developing countries, relevant Chinese departments and ministries, NGOs and the media, formally attended the event, where Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, delivered a video speech and Arab Hoballah, Chief of the Sustainable Development Division of UNEP, and a dozen of other distinguished guests gave wonderful speeches.
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said in the video, “The Global Initiative for Resource Efficient Cities (GI-REC) and the Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative (SBCI), initiated by the UNEP, serve as global platforms and networks which are strongly promoted by the UNEP. The inclusion of the two initiatives in the SUC Programme system will help advance our ongoing work on sustainable urban development.”
Former UN Under-Secretary-General Sha Zukang believes that developing countries need to adhere to the principle of “common but differentiated” compared with developed countries. Considering that different countries have different national conditions, development stages and economic, cultural, historical and geographic conditions, SUC Guidelines takes China as the starting point by providing services for Chinese cities and communities and eventually provide guidance for other developing countries. The development of China’s new urbanization requires international guidance and new models. As such, the first trial and implementation of SUC Programme and SUC Guidelines in China are very helpful.
According to Li Xiang, Executive Director of SUC Project, as a new international evaluation system in the field of sustainable development, the release of the Guiding Principles of the SUC Guidelines is in line with the sustainable development needs of cities and communities, and the selection and construction of pilot cities and communities based on the Guiding Principles will also work to address the practical problems hindering the local sustainable development.
Achim Steiner，Under-Secretary-General of UN and Executive Director of UNEP
Sha Zukang，Former Under-Secretary-General of UN and Honorary President of SUC Programme
Arab Hoballah，Chief of the Sustainable Lifestyle, Cities and Industry Division of UNEP
Deo Prasad，Senior Consultant of UNEP and Author of SUC Guidelines
Kamal Bouchmed，Senior Official of the Urban Planning and Design Division of UN-Habitat
Dong Xuhui，Chief Engineer of the Environment Development Center the Ministry of Ecology and Environment
Li Fengting，Professor of UNEP-Tongji University Environment and Sustainability Institute
Li Xiang，Executive Director of SUC Programme