Park Won Soon, Seoul mayor, is elected as the new ICLEI president. He gives the inaugural address at this year's opening ceremony.
Currently in Seoul, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) World Congress 2015 is being held, the world's largest network of over 1,000 cities, towns and metropolises committed to building a sustainable future. It began with an opening ceremony on April 8 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) and will continue until April 12.
Participants concentrate on a presentation during one of the speech sessions at the ICLEI conference, on April 9.
On April 9, the second day of the congress, participants, including 100 mayors from around the world, adopted the Seoul Declaration. It is a collaborative document that sets out a path toward urban sustainability. It presents nine future tasks and objectives on which member-countries can take action. The tasks are: create a low-carbon city and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; create a resilient city; create a resource-efficient and productive city; create an eco-mobile city; create a smart city; promote biodiversity across the city; create a happy, healthy and inclusive city; forge a sustainable local economy; and, finally, cooperate on public procurement and on forging a sustainable city region. Some 1,200 ICLEI member cities and towns will be establishing action plans based on the declaration.
Gino van Begin, secretary general of the ICLEI, stressed that the Seoul Declaration presents the principles of behavior, the principles of decision-making and the principles of new policies that some 1,000 member cities and towns will advance over the next three to five years. He said that this document will be an important guideline to developing a low-carbon city, a resilient city and a city with biodiversity.
The opening ceremony of the ICLEI World Congress 2015 is attended by Park Won Soon (eighth from left), the new president of the congress, David Cadman (ninth from left), the former president, and other new members of the executive committee.
Park Won Soon, newly elected president of the initiative, said that the congress offers a chance for leaders of cities and towns worldwide to think together about problems they face today, such as resource depletion, environmental pollution and climate change.
The ICLEI Congress is held every three years to gather the group wisdom and to share the experiences of environmental issues from cities and metropolises from around the globe. This year's topic is sustainable solutions for an urban future. Congress participants from 204 cities and towns will take part in seven plenary sessions, eight special topic sessions and 28 workshops and side events.
On April 10, the mayors of Johannesburg, Montreal, San Rafael, Nantes and Paris will take part in the Mayoral Forum and high-level dialogue to proclaim executive plans for each of their own cities.
Earlier on April 7, Seoul proclaimed that by 2030 it will have reduced by about 40 percent the amount of greenhouse gases emitted across the city, compared to 2005 figures. The Seoul Action Plan, a collection of plans for all cities and municipalities, will be announced by ICLEI President Park Won Soon at the closing session on April 11. The Seoul Declaration and the Seoul Action Plan will then be delivered to the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to take place in Paris this December.
By Lee Seung-ah
Photos: Yonhap News
Korea.net Staff Writer
slee27@korea.kr
