When local government representatives from around the world
take part in the world's biggest conference on sustainable
development next week, Dunedin will be represented.
Cr Jinty MacTavish (27) will leave for Brazil today to attend
the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
- Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) world congress
after which she will attend Rio+20, the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development, as an ICLEI "future
city leader".
ICLEI is an international association of local governments
and national and regional local government organisations,
including the Dunedin City Council, that have made a
commitment to sustainable development.
Cr MacTavish has been involved with the association for about
four months as part of 10-person trial future city leaders
programme.
At the congress, she will participate in programmes dealing
with youth engagement in local government and integrated
solutions for sustainable development, but before that she
will attend an ICLEI Urban Nature conference focusing on
urban biodiversity and food security.
At that, she will present a Dunedin perspective on ecological
infrastructure for urban development, including discussion on
tussock's role in the city's water supply.
Following the congress she will attend Rio+20, mainly as part
of ICLEI's "Global Town Hall", the main forum at Rio+20 to
discuss the sustainable urban future and agree on solutions
for the future.
After that she will take a few weeks' holiday in wider South
America.
Cr MacTavish said she had been to a UN sustainable
development conference previously but, ironically, had come
away disillusioned as she did not feel the outcomes were
actually going to translate into any tangible action.
This time, she was positive the conference was headed in the
right direction, with the UN already having indicated it was
seeking practical, defined action plan-type outcomes.
"I see the potential for this conference to be the one where
we all step back from the work we do on such focused outcomes
and say, how is poverty related to environmental degradation
and cultural disenfranchisement, and what solutions can we
use to address a whole suite of issues."
That was a preferable way of trying to find solutions rather
than focusing on one area, for example global warming, when
it should be treated as a symptom of wider problems.
She was looking forward to being part of the Rio+20 "pressure
cooker", she said.
"It's getting down to the nitty gritty. It will be intense."
Cr MacTavish said she had financed her trip and involvement
with all of the conferences herself.
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