News

June 27, 2022

TOWARDS UEF4

Urban Economy Forum’s annual forum is an important venue for the financial institutions, economic organizations, urban practitioners and stakeholders, city leaders, and academia to participate in an open dialogue on sustainable urban development with a focus on urban economy. This year is the fourth forum, titled UEF4, that will focus on Sustainable Urban Finance and will strengthen connections, collaborations, and partnerships between city leaders and financial institutions. The forum is also a global gathering that provides a platform for brainstorming, networking and making vital connections that ultimately lead to new and practical initiatives.

UEF4 will be held virtually and in person, in conjunction with the United Nations’ celebration of World Habitat Day. The Forum is excited to welcome speakers from across the globe who are experts in their fields. During UEF4’s preparatory meeting, leading urban organisations came together to deliberate on pressing challenges facing cities, especially in the context of sustainable urban financing. 

As a starting point, Hank Bouwman, Metrex Secretary General clarified that “We feel we should be reaching out, not only to governments or authorities, but also to the people on the streets who will have to be part of any sustainability goals, with a focus on the “how to.”

In the interest of “how to,” Elkin Velásquez, Director of UN-Habitat for Latin America and the Caribbean  shared that, in keeping with obtaining an ecosystem of funding that is focusing on sustainable urban development, we have been developing the idea of the value chain of sustainable urbanization - not only public sources but also regional in the way of development banks, world banks, inter-American development banks.  We are looking at these sources as being part of the process of finding a specific approach to support pipelines of well-structured urban integration operations and as a line to open the conversation with the private sector as well.”  UEF4 aims to open space to direct dialogue between city leaders and the private sector…

Maria B. Rasmussen, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Manager, Arbeidernes Landsbank is looking for more clarification, as she states: “As a representative from the financial sector, we believe that private capital is crucial for the economy’s transition.”   “What we have done so far is that in 2020, we have determined an ambitious sustainability strategy and we have signed the principles for responsible banking, investment and global compacts.”  “We need clarification as to what sustainable finance is and clear definitions of what sustainable activities are, in order for us to allocate or reallocate investments in those directions.”

The global pandemic continues to take a toll on our urban centers and societies. Serge Allou, Technical Advisor, UCLG, highlights that “the COVID crisis has shown that most of the current revenues of local governments were based on economic activities and when economic activities are down, local revenue is also down.  A priority should be working on these issues.”

The annual forum also aims to highlight important models to sustainable urban finance, such as the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, highlighted by Dr. Kulwant Singh, PhD., CEO 3R WASTE Foundation/Urban Policy, WASH and Mobility Specialist, India. Dr. Singh emphasized on the importance of recycling to achieve the SDGs because it protects the ecosystem and wildlife; it conserves natural resources, saves energy, reduces carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption.” “Circular economy is not possible without the fourth industrial revolution.  We are working towards closing supply chains, selling waste by-products, energy sharing, increasing resource and energy and extending product/asset useful life.”

With regards to the EU’s approach, Angelika Poth-Moegele, Secretary General of the Greens Group of the European Committee of the Regions explains that the EU is defining what should be considered sustainable financing because there is a risk of things being called green when they are not.  To this end, the European Investment Bank has created a separate climate bank and has embarked on very ambitious objectives on climate and environmental sustainability. 

If you are interested in joining the dialogue about what urban sustainability entails and how we should move forward in the arena of financing, please join us on October 3-4, 2022, either virtually or in-person from 9 am – 5 pm. The registration is available via Eventbrite. For up-to-date news on UEF4, please follow UEF4 on social media:  LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.