Sustainable Urban Development and Livable Garden Community Programme
In September 2015, President Xi Jinping attended the UN Sustainable Development Summit, during which the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was unanimously adopted by the 193 member states of the UN. The agenda, with 17 goals at its heart, provides guidance for the development of countries worldwide in the coming 15 years. “Sustainable Cities and Communities” , listed as the 11th goal, aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Against this backdrop, the Sustainable Urban Development and Livable Garden Community Programme (SUC Programme) was jointly implemented by the SUC Programme Management Center (SUC PMC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2015, which originated from the MOU signed by UNEP and Jia Cui (China) Environmental Promotion Center (JCEP) in 2009. The UN-Habitat, the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) subsequently joined in cooperation on the Programme. Under the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it has 3 missions which are preparing Guidelines for Sustainable Cities and Communities, building an International Platform for Cooperation and Think Tank on Sustainable Development, and creating Pilots and Best Practices of Sustainable Urban and Community Development in China and other developing countries. Sha Zukang, former UN Under-Secretary-General& Secretary-General of the Preparatory Committee of 2030 Agenda, serves as Honorary Chairman of SUC Programme; Klaus Toepfer, former UN Under-Secretary-General& former Executive Director of UNEP, serves as General Consultant of SUC Programme.
SUC Programme boasts a broad network of partners including Environmental Development Centre of Ministry of Environmental Protection, China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce, China Center for International Economic Exchanges of NDRC, All-China Environment Federation, Sustainable Development Center of China Academy of Social Sciences. SUC Programme Management Center is the executive organization of SUC Programme. SUC Research Committee for Sustainable Cities and Communities was established under the guidance of China Association for Promoting International Economic & Technical Cooperation.
The first phase of SUC Programme spans from 2015 to 2018. The key objectives were to develop SUC Guidelines, select the first batch of pilot cities and communities, create a think tank and build a cooperation platform. As of December 2017, great progress had been achieved. SUC Guidelines was basically finalized with UNEP taking the lead in preparation; three pilot cities and three pilot communities had been identified in China; the SUC expert team, implementation team and international cooperation team had been initially set up.
The second phase of SUC Programme spans from 2019 to 2021. It prioritizes the application of SUC Guidelines in the newly emerged cities and communities in developing countries with rapid urbanization. At the same time, the second batch of pilot cities and communities are selected in China as well as Belt and Road countries. SUC partnership platform is also expanding to more developing countries.
UN-Habitat has joined SUC in developing the SUC Guidelines since 2015. UNOSD officially joined SUC Program in 2016 as a technical supporter. Other partners and supporters include International Energy Agency, World Wide Fund for Nature, China Energy Conservation Association of NDRC, China Internet News Center of the State Council Information Office, SEE Conservation, China Academy of Building Research, Tongji University, Zhejiang University and City University of Hong Kong.