Shanghai Award helps to promote best practices of sustainability

The 2023 World Cities Day event includes the Global Award For Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award). Mao Qizhi, a famous urban planning expert at Tsinghua University, was a judge for the award. She had an interview with media on the Shanghai Award.

The World Cities Day was the first international day established by the United Nations with a focus on cities. It was proposed in the Shanghai Declaration during the Expo 2010 Shanghai China Summit Forum on Oct 31 that year. The 68th United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution designating Oct 31 as World Cities Day, starting from 2014.

For the past several years, the Shanghai World Cities Day Office and other organizations have promoted excellent examples through the Shanghai Manual. On this basis, and after communications between Shanghai and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development with the UN-Habitat, it was decided to present the Shanghai Award at the end of October. The establishment of the Shanghai Award helps promote good experiences and practices especially in sustainable development.

Sustainable development is a topic of global concern. After it was initiated in the 1980s in the report Our Common Future, it has become a consensus among far-sighted personages across the globe.    

Following the rapid urbanization in China, two-thirds of Chinese people are now living in cities, which has resulted in benefits and development prospects for many, and also many problems.

To solve the problems, Mao proposed several guiding principles. The most important one is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015 by the United Nations and the New Urban Agenda released by the UN-Habitat in 2016.

In this process, the Chinese government has adopted measures in all respects. Take Shanghai as an example. Shanghai’s development also drives the development of neighboring areas, the Yangtze River Delta, and the entire Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Mao said the most important factor in the development of a city is people’s livelihood, specifically with regard to basic services such as medical care, food, clothing and housing. The sustainable development goal is reflected in both regional coordinated development at the macro level and people-oriented development at the micro level. 

China has won dozens or hundreds of awards in the past decades and has accumulated rich experience in sustainable development. These include experiences in improvement of the urban environment, public transport, people’s life services (for example the 15-minute service circle in Shanghai, which enable residents to reach basic services within 15 minutes).

It is expected that Shanghai Award will attract more attention globally and promote more useful experience across the world.