Building a sustainable world depends on our cities

Sophie Hill - writing about
building sustainable cities.

Walking through inner-city Melbourne, scenes of sleeping rough, makeshift cardboard shelters and begging are not uncommon.

All of this, in the city deemed the world’s most liveable for six consecutive years, demonstrates the universal nature of the challenge cities face.

The issue of urban inequality and the rights of marginalised citizen will be a key point at the upcoming Habitat III Conference in Quito in October, 2016. Held every 20 years, the conference will set out priorities and frameworks for addressing global sustainability concerns over the next two decades.

The University of Melbourne’s delegation includes several urban planning researchers from the Melbourne School of Design. They will actively engage in discussion that will help to shape Australia’s urban priorities and policy for years to come.

The UN Habitat’s New Urban Agenda and the relatively new Sustainable Development Goals are two specific global frameworks that will be under consideration at the conference. These global frameworks essentially provide governments with a model on which to base their policy, and an incentive to promote more equitable urban processes and outcomes.

Read the Pursuit story by Sophie Hill from the University of Melbourne - “Building a sustainable world depends on our cities.”

AMA ramps up pressure for government to act on climate change

T

he powerful doctors lobby group is set to ramp up pressure on the federal government to take action on climate change.

Australian Medical Association vice president Stephen Parnis says a working group has been established to revamp the group's climate policy before the UN climate change conference in Paris this year.

"We would like Australia's targets and priorities to be informed by AMA policy and influenced by AMA advocacy," he told doctors at the AMA's national conference in Brisbane on Sunday.

Dr Parnis called for doctors to take a more active role in mitigating climate change, with the negative health effects already becoming apparent and putting additional strain on the health system.

He said heatwaves in Victoria last summer produced a dramatic increase in visits to emergency departments.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald story - “Doctors union mounts push for government action to tackle climate change”.