11th High Level Seminar on Sustainable Cities

The East-Asia Summit High-Level Seminar (HLS) on Sustainable Cities (former title: HLS on Environmentally Sustainable Cities) is organised annually as a platform to gather together influential East and Southeast Asia policymakers, experts and practitioners working to make cities clean, green and sustainable since 2010. HLS provides opportunities for participants to share and promote their latest ideas and initiatives on sustainable city development; to explore collaboration potential; and, importantly, to develop specific recommendations to the East Asia Summit Environment Ministers Meeting, which includes ASEAN Environment Ministers, on practical cooperation activities on environmentally sustainable cities.

Since 2017, the HLS broadened its focus to the multi-dimensional nature of sustainable urban development and responded to the need of aligning city-level development with the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, particularly its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the climate change has intensified its impacts on the lives of people, the necessities to tackle socio-economic issues, such as poverty, hangers, resilience, and other issues remain evident. Hence, there is a growing demand to address both climate and developmental issues by leveraging synergy and avoiding trade-offs. Because the success of addressing these multi-faceted issues depends on the implementation in cities, the central theme of the HLS is “SDG localisation” in full consideration of the synergies between the SDGs and climate agenda.

 

The 11th HLS was originally planned in March 2020 in Manila, the Philippines, and it was postponed because of the spread of COVID-19. Currently, discussion on how to accelerate transformative changes to more sustainable and resilient city in the context of the New Normal is taking place in various occasions, and it is optimal time for cities and those who work with cities in the regions to share the on-going initiatives and consider future direction of recovery policies and measures on “building back better”. In light of the importance to address the issue, the organisers of the 11th HLS decided to organise the 11HLS on-line as a webinar series consisting four parts – opening high-level plenary, two thematic sessions, and the closing session on the direction of cities’ development.

 

 

Target participants consist mainly of government officials from environment ministries in ASEAN Member States. Local and city-level authorities, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, city networks, NGOs, private companies, academia and community groups will also join the seminar.

 

On-line meeting via zoom *Live streaming in English and Japanese is also available.

Government of Philippines, Government of Japan, ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)