Speaking on behalf of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, Dr Odeh Al-Jayyousi, Vice-President for Science and Research at the Royal Scientific Society said today (April 2nd) that 'intelligent cities' needed 'intelligent people' to make them viable. Addressing delegates at the Intelligent Cities: Strategies for Sustainable Energy Policies in the Middle East and North Africa conference in Amman, Dr Al-Jayyousi said that the time for denying individual responsibility in protecting our urban and rural environment was long gone: "We are all interconnected and interdependent in our cities and our communities - so we need to think before we act in our civic context."
In his opening remarks, Achim Vogt, the resident director of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation, underlined that cities can only be as intelligent and smart as their citizens and the strategies developed by its decision-makers.
He stressed that a complex and creative set of regulations, incentives and behavioral changes are needed if the ever growing mega-cities of the region are to enable its population decent and environmentally-friendly living conditions.
Dr Al-Jayyousi added that the sharp climb in Jordan's oil import bill last year made smart thinking in the urban arena even more important for future planning. The country's oil bill rocketed by 58.1% to JD3.46 billion in 2011, a trend that is unsustainable and extremely dangerous to national security: "Intelligent cities are built to adapt to economic and political challenges," said Dr Al-Jayyousi. "They work in harmony with the environment and they connect people to the real challenges that face our environment and our way of life."
The key to the Kingdom's urban future lies in developing the framework for a sustainable energy mix, added Dr Al-Jayyousi: "Our cities must become focused on restoring the compatibility between civilization and the natural world. For by changing our global and local climate we also change local living conditions with potentially severe implications for plants, animals and humans."
"Today, the world is divided between one quarter who enjoy the highest living standards and the most privileged consumption patterns human history, and the other three quarters of the global population who are confronted daily with the harsh and inhumane realities of poverty - with no access to safe drinking water and poor energy and water security. Our challenge is to ensure that this shocking disparity does not become an enduring part of the fabric of our cities."
The two-day conference brings together some one hundred experts from Jordan and the MENA region. Attendees will discuss diverse city projects including Masdar in the United Arab Emirates and Berlin in Germany, as well as the "Amsterdam Smart City Project" and similar efforts in New Delhi.
The conference is jointly organized by the Royal Scientific Society and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, in cooperation with the Berlin-based Innovation Centre for Mobility and Societal Change (InnoZ).
© Press Release 2012
