This afternoon, within the framework of the Brussels Urban Summit 2023, Bogotá was included in a shortlist of innovative cities that serve as examples of environmentally-friendly urbanism, thanks to projects like the Séptima Green Corridor. The recognition was made by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, during her speech at the event's opening.
"Take climate action, cities emit two-thirds of the world's greenhouse gases, but they are also leading the green wave around the world. Cities are investing in clean energy and electrification, refurbishing buildings, exploring circular economies, and planting green spaces. Like in Brussels, where the city is renovating its industrial heritage with sustainable housing, or in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, which has transformed a concrete highway into a pedestrian-friendly green corridor complete with new bike lanes and public transportation," emphasized the EU representative.
This was the central theme during the summit's opening, where Mayor Claudia López also participated, traveling as the President of the global network of cities, Metropolis, an organization that is part of the organizers of this global event in Belgium.
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In this tweet the Mayor refers to the Brussels Urban Summit:
Durante la Cumbre Urbana de Bruselas #BUS2023, en espacio liderado por la OCDE, compartimos nuestra visión sobre los desafíos para el siglo XXI.
— Claudia López Hernández (@ClaudiaLopez) June 13, 2023
Las ciudades necesitan fortalecer su base fiscal y su autonomía política. Debemos comprender que, además de buenas políticas públicas,… pic.twitter.com/CkiBwv3ed9
In her speech, the mayor highlighted the role of cities in achieving global development agendas, as well as the care-focused approach being led by Bogotá. "It seems that the world has discovered that cities matter, that cities are the key global actors in this century for solutions of inclusion, sustainability, and green development. But also, of peace. Building peace through inclusion, through caring for people first, so that we can have citizens will be able to care for democracies, will be able to bring peace and opportunities, and sustainability," stated Claudia López.
As part of the summit, the mayor also participated in the 6th Meeting of Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the aim of finding responses to address the crisis of rising cost of living and the housing access crisis in cities.
In this space, she extended an invitation to the OECD team to generate missions and studies focused on fiscal decentralization and governance of cities, in order to strengthen the resources used to finance responses to the citizens' major needs.
"It requires metropolitan regional governance. And I would suggest to our friends to the OECD, to set up a group of studies very short, very pragmatic taking to account different sizes, different cases, different regions to provide specific suggestions and most of all convincing the national governments, that they cannot do at least they can allow us to do it from the cities," concluded the Mayor of Bogotá.
This meeting was a closed-door roundtable discussion between mayors and global leaders such as Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the OECD; Pascal Smet, Secretary of State of the Brussels Capital Region; Dagur Eggertsson, Mayor of Reykjavik, and more than 40 mayors from cities around the world. The meeting concluded with the approval of the Brussels Blueprint for affordable cities and housing for all, a policy document reaffirming the commitment to inclusive growth and proposing measures to address the cost of living in cities and improve access to and affordability of housing.
Earlier, the Mayor also attended the Board of Directors meeting of the Metropolis network, where agreements from the General Assembly were reviewed, minutes and financial statements were approved, and other administrative matters of the organization, which she has been leading for a year, were discussed.
