REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- About 3,500 delegation members from 116 countries participating in the Third Preparatory Meeting for UN Habitat III in Surabaya, East Java province agree with Zero Draft New Urban Agenda (NUA).
"Although the session has been quite tough, basically the participants agree with the Zero Draft," the Secretary General of UN Habitat III, Joan Clos, said here on Wednesday.
The draft will be delivered to the UN Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016.
Clos explained the agreement shows a strong commitment of all the participants in New Urban Agenda.
The issues included in the zero draft, he noted, are education, equality, poverty, and settlement.
Clos added there are two main points in the draft namely urbanization as an urban development tool and climate change.
"The discussion on climate change in the NUA should be in line with the climate change summit in Paris that states the reduction of Earth's temperature by 2.5 degrees. This has been agreed," Clos said.
Clos added over the last twenty years urbanization has taken a lot of lands for settlements, industrial areas, entertainment facilities, and commercial buildings. According to him, urbanization can threaten agricultural lands.
"We suggest the urban development in the future should be oriented to multi-function buildings," he remarked.
The city administration, he continued, should set up a regulation on housing that makes the prices reasonable for all people.
In terms of poverty, Clos said, urbanization should bring positive impacts under control of urban community. The comers have to be trained well, he added.
"The urban development can be realized with state budget. The government has to be efficient in calculating expenses costs," Clos said.
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