Briefly summarized in the first section of the note is the current discourse on city
development, indicating both the importance
of cities to climate mitigation as well as
the fact that climate mitigation is increasingly seen as a key component of
urban development and management rather than
a challenge to it. The author’s inputs to the forum attempt to highlight both the importance of managing cities along economically and environmentally sustainable and efficient growth paths, as well as the importance of building appropriate institutions able to do so. In the concluding section the author remarks that firstly, the focus of the Forum tended to be mainly on national, supra-national issues and
micro-local issues, while much of the urban
development discourse is focused on matters
in between; and secondly, that there was
relatively little attention paid to implementation and building the institutions
required to bring about the critical changes
required in the growth trajectory.
