Kofi Annan Links Urban Planning To Poverty Reduction

Annan spoke as part of the 2005 World Environment Day conference. In general, he noted that by 2030, "more than 60 per cent of the world's population would live in cities, up from almost half now and just a third in 1950...The growth poses huge problems, ranging from clean water supplies to waste collection...Unless city planning improved, the UN goal of halving poverty by 2015 would not be met." According to Klaus Toepfer, head of the UN Environment Program, "The battle for sustainable development, for delivering a more environmentally stable, just and healthier world, is going to be largely won and lost in our cities."