The new Smart and Sustainable City Platform will serve as a global forum to share and exchange information about issues faced by developers of sustainable cities around the world in sustainable practices, relations and business models with anchored solutions

Seoul, Republic of Korea,Dubai, UAE;23 May 2017

TheWorld Green Economy Organisation (WGEO) was launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai in October 2016 and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Today WGEO launched internationally Smart &Sustainable Cities Platform in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The platform was launched in Seoul with an objective to bring to focus how the city has progressed towards sustainability and become a leading example of green economy.

Co-hosted by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA),the new platform was launched ahead of the Global Technology Fair in the presence of H.E. Ahmad Buti Al Muhairbi, Board Member of the World Green Economy Organisation (WGEO), Dr.Frank Rijsberman, Director-General, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and Dr Daeyeon Cho, Executive Director of Smart City Board, KAIA. The event was attended by HE Abdulla Saif Al Nuaimi, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Korea as he delivered an opening remark followed by a welcome note by Dr. Byung-soo Kim, President of KAIA. The event was preceded by a meeting between the WGEO delegation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic ofKorea, followed by a trilateral session with the leadership of GGGI and KAIA, key international partner of WGEO, to discuss the collaboration on the smart and sustainable initiatives promoted by the Korean government.

In his speech presented during the event on behalf of HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of WGEO, H.E. Ahmad Buti Al Muhairbi, Board Member of WGEO said that this unique platform  will serve as a global forum to share and exchange information about issues faced by developers of sustainable cities around the world in sustainable practices, relations and business models with anchored solutions. The new platform is a knowledge sharing podium that will provide access to cutting-edge tools and promote an integrated approach to sustainable urban planning and financing.

H.E. Al Muhairbi added: “The world is urbanising at a swift pace, already more than half of the global population lives in cities, and this number is expected to increase rapidly, while many cities around the world already claim to be smart and sustainable, research indicates that they are still far from it”.

WGEO is founded on seven platforms - countries, smart &sustainable cities sector, private sector, academia, organisations and civil society, youth sector and financial sector.

In February this year, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, launched the Private Sector platform, the first to be launched. Since then, the WGEO has launched platforms for Youth, Academia, and the Organisations & Civil Society. In the coming period, WGEO will also launch the platforms for the financial sectors and countries. These platforms reflect the enormous efforts of WGEO to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and the Paris Climate Agreement with a challenging objective to mitigate climate change and find innovative solutions to challenges related to sustainable energy, water and the environment in general.

Smart cities represent the next stage of urban evolution, containing the infrastructure and broadband connectivity to manage and deliver public services. Smart cities will sustainably meet the needs of present and future generations. As such, launching this new platform comes as part of WGEO’s efforts to offer interested parties and sustainability professionals with timely, vetted, and practical resources to identify and implement solutions to advance their goals and strengthen their sustainable communities.

The Smart &Sustainable Cities Platform will be a treasure-trove of robust collection of city profiles, case studies, model policies and communication tools that will provide engaged stakeholders with a set of resources to guide and catalyse action for a green economy. The Platform will also help design future scenarios and innovations for products, services and business models, for companies and sectors.

The WGEO is working to drive the sustainable evolution, by promoting the advantages of low-carbon transport systems and making the most effective use of Big Data to design climate-change-resilient urban environments. In the increasingly-urbanised world we live in today, innovative technologies are essential in addressing our living requirements and basic needs while ensuring that the goods we produce have a low-carbon footprint.

Based on its Smart &Sustainable Cities Platform, WGEO will facilitate projects to analyse, monitor and optimise urban systems to efficiently use energy and water, build social and economic cohesion and governance, and get people to become more involved in their smart cities

Launching this new platform not only reflects our diligent efforts to support a green economy, but reinforces WGEO’s pioneering position in ensuring a sustainable future for all. If planned and managed well, the sustainable cities can drive development, growth and the creation of jobs, while also contributing to a healthier, better quality of life for residents and the long-term protection of the global environment. As such, our objective through this platform is tofacilitate workshops, dialogue and design and bring to focus a broad range of tools, using collaborative methodologies with multi-stakeholder groups, always focused on delivering green solutions,” Al Muhairbi added.

The new Smart &Sustainable Cities Platform is designed to provide information on the day-to-day management of sustainable cities, including improving access to clean water, energy and transport, as well as efforts to mitigate climate change.  It will support cities in pursuing evidence-based approaches to urban planning, including geospatial data and establishing urban sustainability indicators. The platform also aims to help projects become successes, by always focusing on delivering green solutions.

“The smart and sustainable city platform launched by the WGEO with the support of GGGI and KAIA, is a timely action to help strengthen the speed and scale of green growth in cities. GGGI’s experience in our Green City programs by bringing together policy makers, urban planners, technology developers, private business, financiers, academia and citizens across borders to work together to generate more innovative solutions for low carbon, climate resilient urban development and replicable green city models. GGGI, drawing on its work and experience in Cambodia, Mexico, Rwanda and other green city focused country programs, will work together like-minded partners such as WGEO and KAIA to achieve greater impacts linking to Sustainable Development Goals at cities for inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable human settlement,“ added Dr. Frank Rijsberman, Director General, GGGI.

At the end of the launch, representatives of the newly launched platform were invited on stage to demonstrate their commitment and pledge their support to carry the responsibility to achieve sustainability and to combat climate change.

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© Press Release 2017