By Burlington (VT) Mayor Peter Clavelle
September 9, 2002

Last week, I was honored to join leaders from around the world in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Summit on Sustainability Development. The Johannesburg Summit marks ten years since the Rio Earth Summit, where 178 countries adopted a global action plan called Agenda 21. Progress since Rio has been meager. The commitments made in 1992 have not effectively addressed global warming, environmental degradation, or global poverty. The lofty goal of this year's summit was to get representatives of more than 190 nations to agree on a development plan, particularly in the poorest countries, that will not further foul the air, pollute the water, degrade the land, or impoverish even more of humanity.

The classic definition of sustainable development is "meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." While national efforts to achieve sustainable development since Rio have fallen short, local governments have made significant strides toward sustainability. America's mayors practice sustainable development every day—creating jobs, building housing, improving schools, combating racism, revitalizing neighborhoods, and protecting the environment. In the Local Government Session, a parallel event to the Summit itself attended by more than 700 municipal representatives, Burlington's efforts to develop a cohesive sustainable development strategy were highlighted among ten Local Strategies for Accelerating Sustainability.

In Johannesburg, I joined three mayors and other local officials in representing U.S. cities. We worked with municipal leaders from around the world in developing strategies to implement the global blueprint for a sustainable future first endorsed at the 1992 Rio Summit.

What lessons did we learn? What message did our small delegation bring?

We all recognized that any talk of sustainability must focus considerably on the world's cities, where the majority of the world's population today lives. By 2030, more than 60 percent of the world's citizens will live in urban areas.

We also acknowledged the huge challenges before us. Poverty and populations continue to increase. Agricultural production is declining. Twenty-five years from now, if trends continue, nearly two-thirds of humanity will be living without adequate water.

In order to develop adequate responses to these challenges, mayors and local officials called on national and international bodies to strengthen the institutions of local government, to recognize local government as a vital sphere, and to mitigate the local-level impacts of globalization, particularly within the developing world and countries with economies in transition. Local officials demanded a profound shift from the current development model, and committed themselves to the values and principles of the Earth Charter.

In addition, I and most U.S. mayors present, along with mayors from Australia and Canada, urged our respective national governments to support the Kyoto Protocol and to commit to meaningful targets for renewable energy use. While Burlington and 150 other U.S. cities are part of the Cities for Climate Protection campaign, a worldwide program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. government has—in the language of our call to action—"shirked its responsibility and failed our global community by refusing to support the Kyoto Protocol." We, in effect, asked our national government to join local governments in leading the world toward environmental sustainability.

The presence of U.S. mayors at the summit was very important. Our absence would have been very conspicuous. President Bush's absence from Johannesburg was much discussed and only served to reinforce the image of the U.S. taking unilateral approaches to international problems.

Locally, we-re making progress. In localities around the world, there's progress. But the biggest players on the world stage have yet to accept the full responsibilities of their roles. While not as bold as I would have liked, some concrete actions were agreed upon in Johannesburg. It's time for cities to take the next steps and to continue to lead the way toward sustainable communities on a more sustainable planet.