Environment summit adopts declaration and initiative

Hundreds of mayors and environment experts from more than 100 cities across the globe have adopted a declaration and an initiative based on agreements to address the wide range of environmental issues facing cities after a three-day urban environment summit in this southwestern city, organizers said Friday. The 2011 Gwangju Summit of the Urban Environmental Accords (UEA), hosted by the Gwangju metropolitan government, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the U.S. city of San Francisco, endorsed the Gwangju Declaration and the Gwangju Initiative at a closing ceremony on Thursday that collectively called for participating cities to take practical measures to reduce carbon emissions and strengthen cooperation. The declaration notes the challenges faced by cities due to global shifts in resource management, urban population increases and growing demand for resources. In addition, the declaration establishes an Urban Environmental Accords Members Alliance as a UEA steering organization as well as its Secretariat in Gwangju to facilitate global application of the Urban Environment Evaluation Index and Urban CDM, which are being co-developed by Gwangju and the UNEP. Meanwhile, Sonu Jung-ho, chief of the 2011 Gwangju Summit of the Urban Environmental Accords released the initiative at the close of the summit. It calls for the development of an urban Clean Development Mechanism for the promotion of green economies and an assessment index for an eco-friendly city which can be applied to both advanced and developing countries. In a related matter, the Gwangju metropolitan government said it aims to develop an index and a manual by the year 2013 with the help of the UNEP and the Korean Environment Institute, a local environment think tank. The manual asks developing nation to adjust to climate changes and developed nations to focus on reducing damage from climate change.