Copenhagen Agenda: Working for Sustainable Cities

The 51st International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) world congress ‘Futures of Cities’  took place in Copenhagen 23 - 26 September 2007. The conference was a collaboration between the Danish foundation Realdania, the Ministry of Environment and the Copenhagen Municipality. Realdania asked the Scandinavian think tank Monday Morning to create the ‘Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities’ initiative. Monday Morning interviewed 50 of the world’s most important urban experts on what it takes to create sustainable cities. These statements and observations distilled into 10 principles for future sustainable governance, all aiming to strengthen the development of sustainable cities.

The International Federation for Housing and Planning is a global network of professionals engaged in the broad field of housing and planning. IFHP is responsible for a wide range of activities, including an annual world congress. In Copenhagen, the aim of the congress was to address the futures of cities in terms of: How do climate changes affect our cities and urban environment? How do these changes influence the built environment? And what is done to foster the urban world of tomorrow?

The conference was a significant contribution to a greater understanding of urban challenges in the 21st Century. The conference stressed the fact that making cities more sustainable is very much a global challenge, particularly regarding climate change, and that knowledge on how to make cities more sustainable are gravely missed.

By the end of the conference, Deputy Director General Niels Østergård, Danish Ministry of the Environment, summarised the Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities’ 10 points into the following three points:

1) The need for a new way of thinking

2) The need for a new form of planning

3) The need for new management styles