Local governments for sustainability debate about sustainable consumption, transport and waste

Local Governments for Sustainability

The Intergovernmental Preparatory meeting for the nineteenth session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 19) took place in New York from 28 February to 4 March. ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an association of over 1200 local government members who are committed to sustainable development. Members come from 70 different countries and represent more than 569,885,000 people.

Recognition and involvement for local government

ICLEI, in its role as Local Authority Major Group Organizing Partner, took part in the meeting and made the case for local government recognition and involvement in the working area of UNCSD, the high-level forum for sustainable development within the United Nations system.

Clusters of specific thematic and cross-sectoral issues

The meeting is part of the 2-year cycle of CSD implementation meetings focusing on clusters of specific thematic and cross-sectoral issues, outlined in its new multi-year programme of work (2003-2017). CSD19 focuses on the thematic clusters of transport, chemicals, waste management, mining and sustainable consumption and production patterns. You can read the full discussion paper in the right hand column under ‘Reference material’.

Sustainable consumption, transport and waste

In preparation of the meeting the Local Authorities Major Group submitted a paper, which addressed the areas of sustainable consumption, transport and waste as key areas that local governments and cities are concerned with and have a major impact in the implementation of solutions, which also fulfil the policies agreed by CSD parties.