International Awards for Liveable Communities

The LivCom Awards

Newsletter No. 4 - November 2006

The LivCom Newsletter is intended to keep you advised of developments relating to the LivCom Awards. If you wish to contribute to the Newsletter regarding your experience of LivCom or in respect of any subject relevant to LivCom, please contact the LivCom Office on info@livcomawards.com 

The LivCom Awards

The Awards were launched internationally in 1997 and are endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme and are managed by a UK Company Limited by Guarantee, which prohibits the distribution of any financial surpluses earned, and is also a UK Registered Charity.

To access all details of the LivCom Awards in 30 languages, click on www.livcomawards.com

LivCom 2006

Award Winning Communities and Projects Announced

The LivCom 2006 Finals took place in Hangzhou, China, during 9th to 13th November. The International footprint of the Awards continues to grow each year, with for the first time communities representing India, Albania and Nigeria participating in the Finals.

Each year there is an expectation that the standard will rise, and consequently International Best Practice will be further developed. At the Interim Judging Stage the Judges imposed high standards, which was rewarded with excellent innovative Presentations during the Finals.

One of the key elements of LivCom is the provision of the opportunity for Delegates both to learn of successful practices in other countries and cultures, and to meet and form a relationship with representatives of those countries and cultures. These new friendships will inevitably lead to improved practices and the raising of the quality of life in the communities involved.

Participation in the LivCom Awards need not be expensive, but it is demanding, and so it should be if the Finals are a forum for the presentation of International Best Practice.

A part of the Judging process is for Delegates to “assess” the Presentations of other communities, and the result of this public ‘Judging’ is taken into account by the International panel of Judges when coming to a final decision.

The Award winning Communities and Projects in the 2006 LivCom Awards were:

Population up to 20,000

Copies of the Initial Submissions of all of the First Placed Communities are available on the LivCom website.

Criteria Awards

Bursary Award (£10,000)

Abuja, Nigeria

Projects:

LivCom 2007
2007 LivCom Awards Launched

Westminster, London

22nd to 26th November 2007

The 2007 LivCom Awards will take place in the UK for the first time, and will be based in the heart of London, the City of Westminster.

The structure of the Awards will remain the same as in 2006, but with three important changes:

1. There will be no Registration Fee payable in respect of entries into the Whole City Section of the Awards.
2. When a community enters the Whole City Section and the Project Section of the Awards, no Registration Fee will be payable in respect of the Project entry.

3. Registrations in the Project Section, not associated with an entry in the Whole Community Section, will be subject to a Registration Fee of £200.

Full details of the 2007 LivCom Awards may be found on the LivCom website.

Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, the UNEP Special Representative at the LivCom 2006 Awards presented the following Paper at the opening of the Finals.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, gave the following opening in his landmark report called “In larger Freedom” given to the United Nations General Assembly in 2005:
“Five years into the new millennium, we have it in our power to pass on to our children a brighter inheritance than that bequeathed to any previous generation. We can halve global poverty and halt the spread of major known diseases in the next 10 years. We can reduce the prevalence of violent conflict and terrorism. We can increase respect for human dignity in every land. And we can forge a set of updated international institutions to help humanity achieve these noble goals. If we act boldly – and if we act together – we can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights.”

In the report, Kofi Annan goes on to strike a strong and optimistic note, when he claims:
“All the conditions are in place for us to do so!”
This is no small statement. On the contrary – this is a statement that given the situation of the world – or some would perhaps say ‘the plight of the world’ – this is a statement that connotes almost excessive optimism: “All the conditions are in place for us to do so.”

But the report from the Secretary General is no unrealistic travel through a rosy global landscape. It is a sobering report, and taken with other reports from the United Nations that have been published of late, we know that we are faced with a daunting challenge.

While the LivCom awards took place in the city of Hangzhou, nations of this world assembled in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme, where they participated in COP 12, the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, the global protocol enacted within the United Nations years ago to help set standards for greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol entered into legal force on February 16, 2005. The treaty had then been ratified by more than 140 countries. Concentration of carbon dioxide now stands at 372 parts per million, higher than at any time in at least the past 420,000 years.

In an introductory note to the urban programme, UNEP writes ²:
“Climate change has severe impacts world wide, both on rural areas and on urban centres. Extreme weather conditions threaten human health and productivity, and natural disasters such as flooding, wildfires and cyclones increase. More than half of the world’s population now lives within 60 km of the sea and three quarters of all large cities are located on the coast.

Melting ice caps will result in a rise in sea level, which will threaten coastal infrastructure, while a thaw will reduce the stability of cities located on permafrost.

The provision of water, sanitation and energy are all affected. Climate change leads to changes of the natural habitat, which facilitate the spread of vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.”

“Climate change also affects local and regional weather patterns, which can have effects on agricultural outputs and may result in food shortages in cities. Rising temperatures also result in increased energy use, especially in cities where temperatures are already higher than in the surrounding rural areas due to large expanses of concrete and pavement. Loss of green cover in cities in the form of parks, trees and agricultural land raises urban temperatures as well as contributing to climate change.”

The report goes on to cite the voracious appetite cities have for surrounding resources by explaining the vast ecological footprint of a city, an ecological footprint meaning the area of land needed to provide a city with the resources it requires to function and to remove its wastes: the demand for energy, foodstuffs, and its contribution to loss of biodiversity through its man made infrastructure. And there seems to be no end in sight: Emissions from vehicle and transport equipment within urban areas are presently rising at a rate of 2,5% a year – and give little sign of abating. Unfortunately predictions are to the contrary.

In a summary statement from UNEP relating to this highly dramatic but sober appraisal of the situation of cities and municipalities, we can read the following ³:

“Over half the world’s population now lives in cities. High urbanisation has severe consequences on the local environment and the well being of urban residents. Cities are increasingly degrading their surrounding areas and the national, regional and global environment. For example, cities are among the biggest polluters of coastal areas and oceans. Urban activities generate close to 80% of all carbon dioxide, or CO2 emissions, as well as significant amounts of other greenhouse gases. “

Let us return for a minute to what Koffi Annan said in his report, which was quoted earlier:
“If we act boldly – and if we act together – we can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights…..All the conditions are in place for us to do so!” ⁴
Which are the conditions that are in place?

Certainly the UN has worked hard to provide a number of these conditions.
To take up the gauntlet from the Secretary General, I would claim that just within the UN Environment Programme, there is a plethora of conditions put in place for us to utilize.
There is an environment programme called
• The Cities Alliance
• There is the Sustainable Cities Programme
• And there is the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles

Do these initiatives create results?
Let me give you but a few examples from the rich catalogue of success stories recorded as a result of cooperation between municipalities and UNEP ⁵:

* The municipality of Olavarria in Argentina, developed a programme to harness greenhouse gases emitted from their landfills, and the programme’s overarching goal is to develop affordable harnessing systems that can be replicated and used by municipalities in the so called developing world.

* Adelaide in Australia has developed a system through which methane from landfills is captured and used to generate 15 giga-watt hours of electricity, enough to power 5000 homes and at the same time offsetting the fossil fuel previously used.

* Queretaro in Mexico replaced over the past few years 10 000 high watt, old street lights with more efficient lamps, and cutting CO2 emissions with nearly 4000 tonnes per year.

* An electricity plant in Palencia in Spain uses residue from olive oil production as a source for renewable energy, producing enough electricity for 27 000 homes.

* And in the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles programme, more than 80 organisations from the private sector together with NGOs and local governments are working together world-wide to provide alternatives to the fossil-fuel based transportation systems.

But do all these small contributions amount to anything at all?
The World Wide Fund, WWF and the European Biomass Association have calculated that, based on available technology for producing electricity from biomass, 15% of all electricity produced in OECD countries could come from renewable resources by the year 2020, reducing CO2 emissions then with some 1000 million tonnes per year – an amount equivalent to what Canada and Italy together emits today.
It is clear that these and similar efforts will make a difference.

And within the many programmes that UNEP has, there are the so-called GEO Cities, a programme for cities and municipalities that is concerned with developing an assessment methodology to help develop integrated environmental assessments in municipalities.

We live in a globalised world, a world rich in opportunities. Let me quote from a more than 60 year old document that every nation in the world has signed, and let this be the goal for our efforts here at this conference. The document is the Charter of the UN signed on October 24 in 1945. We should take inspiration from this document, and as it states: “strive to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained” as well as promoting “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” ⁶ But to accomplish this, we need also to realise that a sound, healthy and sustainable environment is a prerequisite for such a process.

Our world has never been richer in global resources, nor has its peoples had access to more information, research and technology, or had a deeper and more complete understanding of the complexities that tie all organisms together in a globalised unit. The process of globalisation has given us this.

At the same time, our world has never been exposed to such a combination of threats to our stability, survival, sustainability and security, while the wealth gap between nations and within nations becomes ever wider. The process of globalisation has given us this as well.

We have more opportunities than ever before in the history of mankind to rectify the wrongs our careless development has created.

Let me return to the Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly from which I quoted at the beginning and end this key-note speech by quoting two paragraphs from the report:
”In our efforts to strengthen the contributions of states, civil society, the private sector and international institutions to advancing a vision of larger freedom, we must ensure that all involved assume their responsibilities to turn good words into good deeds. We therefore need new mechanisms to ensure accountability – the accountability of States to their citizens, of States to each other, of international institutions to heir members and of the present generation to future generations.

Where there is accountability we will progress;
Where there is none we will under-perform. “

These are strong and bold words from the Secretary General of the UN. But he knows full well he or the UN cannot muster this challenge alone. He therefore comes with the following statement:
“States, however, cannot do the job alone. We need an active civil society and a dynamic private sector. Both occupy an increasingly large and important share of the space formerly reserved for states alone, and it is plain that the goals outlined here will not be achieved without their full engagement.”

Thus, The Secretary General of the UN calls on the engagement of the most central factor of the UN Charter: “we the peoples”. And I do believe this is the reason behind his optimistic statement:

“If we act boldly – and if we act together – we can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights…. and all the conditions are in place for us to do so!”⁴

It is when ‘we the peoples’ have ownership to processes that mountains can be moved. And who are better positioned than municipalities to inspire and motivate people. And when municipalities and civil society come together united in common efforts to create the foundation for a better future, things happen.

And this is what the LivCom award is all about – forging a bond between ideas, creativity, assessments and success stories and bringing the knowledge from these processes into municipal projects and programmes to implement liveable communities.

Your Excellency, the Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou, on behalf of ‘we the people’s” I would like to thank you for your invitation to host the 2006 LivCom Awards and for contributing to building a better future;

I would further like to extend a thank to Alan Smith, Executive Director of the LivCom awards for his creativity and initiative and that he 10 years ago had the courage to make a dream come true and found this Award,

I would like to thank and greet the judges for their diligent and voluntary work in making this award ceremony one of excellence representing cutting edge understanding of liveable communities,

and I would like to thank all participants here today, including their bosses, the Mayors, for their tireless and hopeful initiatives and work for their constituencies.

Ladies and gentlemen
“If we act boldly – and if we act together – we can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights….all the conditions are in place for us to do so!”

We are the ‘conditions’
We are in place,
Let us now make this century vastly better than the one we have left behind -

We have the power, opportunity, will and resources to do so,
Good luck with the next days in this award winning process
They will be rewarding.

End note:
"Educated at the Universities of Oslo, Norway and Uppsala, Sweden and at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, the US, in modern history, literature, environmental sciences and development issues, Jan-Gustav had his debut with the UN and the environment in the 1970s, which was initiated by the Stockholm Conference for Environment in 1972 and he has stayed with this arena ever since. After having worked on disseminating information on UN issues during the 80s and early 90s, he has followed and worked with the CSD (UN Commission for Sustainable Development) process diligently every year since 1997, when he that year worked as a liaison officer between the UN and the NGO community at the UN headquarters in New York. After his first task for the UN in Latin America in the 70’s, Jan-Gustav has worked and lived in Botswana, Uganda, the US and Sweden in addition to Norway; he has extensive NGO experience developed through three decades in almost all continents in the world. He has lectured at the University of Oslo, and given workshops and guest lectures all over the world on governance and sustainability issues, chaired UN meetings and facilitated UN processes and authored two books and numerous articles on the environment. He is presently the UN CSD NGO Global Coordinator coordinating NGO input into the CSD process as well as serving on a global civil society committee for UNEP on civil society policy issues. Jan-Gustav is employed by a Dutch-based, EU funded international NGO called ANPED (The Northern Alliance for Sustainability) headquartered in Amsterdam as their Senior Policy Adviser, but works out of his home outside Oslo, Norway, when he is not travelling the world, lecturing or otherwise working abroad on environment and sustainability issues."

¹Quoted from Article 1 in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948
² From UNEP’s ”Urban Environment Unit” – their web-site
³ Ibid
⁴ from “In larger freedom”
⁵ from UNEP Urban Environment Unit
⁶ Quoting form the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations.

The International Awards for Liveable Communities
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