PRE_SUD

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Sustainable Development in Leipzig
Peer Review 17-21 June 2002
2
The PRESUD Benchmark

• Core themes
• Leadership
• Democratic Community Engagement
• Performance management

• OECD themes
• Air
• Water
• Waste
• Natural resources
• Regional Co-operation
• Environment Economic integration
• Energy
• Transport
• Social environmental integration
• Social Economic integration

3
The Team

• Allen Creedy Newcastle City Council
• Councillor John Tyrrell Birmingham City Council
• Laura Fagarazzi City of Venice
• Mike Peverill Nottingham City Council
• Mandy James Improvement Development Agency,
  London

4
Leadership

• Leipzig has been transformed since unification as
  a result of strong leadership
• Clear leadership in a number of OECD areas eg
  water quality management, economic development,
  mayoral lead in voluntary agreements, use of
  public enterprise companies to take forward
  initiatives
• The organisation adapts to economic, social and
  environmental change developing new partnerships
  with the business sector and other public
  authorities
• High quality urban green spaces delivering
  substantive improvements in local quality of life
• However.
• Is there an over arching strategic sustainable
  development vision and document?
• Commendable early commitment to LA21 but is there
  high level support to take this forward and
  mainstream?

5
Democratic and Community Engagement

• Good practice examples of projects where the
  community has been involved in deciding policy,
  implementing actions and managing the sites.
• Leipzig East, URBAN, designation of natural areas
  and important wildlife sites.
• Recently approved policy and practice of
  involving children and young people
• Good examples of written communication of
  technical issues
• However
• Build on good practice to extend consultation to
  other services
• Improve the promotion of consultation and
  feedback on results and actions taken
• Ensure that communication is appropriate to your
  audience and distributed accordingly
• Consider building capacity in NGOs to enable
  them to play greater role in decision making eg
  making more technical information available to
  them
• Does the annual survey look at the satisfaction
  of service users?

6
Performance Management

• Excellent project management on large scale
  capital investment schemes
• Evidence of measuring the pressures and the state
  of the environment
• Indicator and statistical reports produced
  showing compliance with national standards
• Policy commitment is backed up by a commitment to
  implementation, this does not raise expectations
  unreasonably
• Targets and goals are generally set and monitored
  for sustainable development (eg social services
  quarterly reports to the mayor)
• However...
• No evidence of an overall performance management
  framework
• Consider the adoption of EMAS or similar system
  for both the council and its public enterprise
  companies to evaluate the contribution of
  proposed policies and projects to sustainable
  development

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Air Management

• Significant improvements in air quality since
  unification which meets current national
  standards
• Good practice in communicating and providing
  relevant information for the public
• Investment in public transport is helping air
  quality by slowing the adverse growth in road
  traffic
• However to meet new EU air quality targets
  consider...
• How nationally available finance from taxes could
  be used to improve air quality
• Closer integration of air quality issues with
  transport and spatial planning
• Further initiatives to reduce the impact of road
  traffic

8
Water Supply and Treatment

• A well organised, structured and financed water
  company
• Meeting needs of consumers in supplying water and
  treating sewerage to meet almost all federal
  standards
• Prices are below national average
• Steady decline in consumption
• However
• Does the strategic planning of water resources
  take account of global warming?
• Does the water company need to reconsider its
  policy of having no water conservation, education
  or consumer awareness measures?

9
Watercourses and Water Bodies

• An impressive partnership for the sustainable
  development and management of the surface water
  resources of the sub region
• This development is of Europe-wide significance
  and will contribute to the achievement of EU
  targets in the 6th EAP and SD strategy.
• Substantial progress in decontaminating rivers
  for which it is responsible
• However
• Further progress is hampered by the Freistaat for
  their rivers
• Has the project involved all the communities of
  interest?
• Has a full strategic environmental assessment
  been undertaken?
• Consider opportunities to restore watercourses as
  drivers in urban renewal eg marketing/publicity
  and improving access from housing areas

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Waste Management

• High standards for waste management set - beyond
  national minimum levels
• Good progress on construction and biological
  waste and road reconstruction materials
• Good practice includes prohibition of one way
  packaging in schools, hospitals and public
  institutions
• Support for development of local waste management
  cluster
• Help and advice provided to households and
  businesses to promote waste minimisation
• Progress has been made in remediating
  contaminated land.
• However...
• Are plans for meeting 2005 EU landfill directive
  robust, realistic and widely supported?
• Is the Municipal Enterprise the most effective
  method of municipal waste management?
• Do you have a robust programme and finance to
  remediate remaining sites?

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Natural Resources

• Effective application of compensation system for
  loss of natural resources.
• Important nature conservation sites designated
  and communicated to stakeholders.
• Organisational structure changing to protect
  natural resources in spatial planning process
• Increasing natural capital through restoration
  of contaminated land and brownfield sites
• However...
• Local people may not be convinced of compensation
  system
• Have you the necessary finance to manage and
  continue to own all designated sites?
• Could NGOs play a greater part in the protection
  of natural resources?
• Will you make the most of opportunities to link
  up wildlife sites?

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Soil

• Innovative and effective system for charging land
  owners for the amount of sealed land owned
• Effective compensation system for making other
  land available to compensate for sealed land

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Integration of Environmental and Economic
Activities

• Economic policy is environmentally sensitive but
  is not looking to decouple economic growth from
  environmental impact
• Excellent initiatives which look to support
  companies in reducing environmental impact but
  these are disconnected within the authority and
  from federal incentives
• However...
• Significant potential to further develop the
  environmental business cluster - a sub regional
  water network?
• Integration of public transport and economic
  development - but does not include road transport
• Consider a more joined up economic development
  service to maximise grant use for environmental
  gain
• Leipzig to host the first sustainable Olympic
  Games?

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Sectoral Integration - Energy

• Member of European Climate Alliance and
  commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 by 2010
  (beyond International targets).
• Well on the way to meeting target in EU 6th EAP
  through use of combined heat and power plant
• Innovative approach
• Recycling profits from energy eg. investment in
  solar film production
• Green House Number award
• Large number of solar power installations
• However...
• Dont deprioritise this area - maximise external
  funding
• Growth in transport and economic activity is a
  barrier to achieving your target
• Promote your achievements, encourage further take
  up of schemes and ensure effective monitoring of
  progress

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Sectoral Integration - Transport

• Strategic approach to high quality public
  transport
• Strategies and subsidies to increase access to
  public transport for disadvantaged groups and
  commuters
• Innovative car sharing scheme needs greater
  promotion, support and uptake.
• However
• More discouragement of private car use and road
  freight needed
• Consider closer integration of spatial planning
  with mobility issues
• No evidence that noise from transport is being
  considered in line with EU noise directive
• Involve community in mobility planning through
  the Local Agenda 21 process

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Regional Co-operation

• Strong evidence of regional co-operation -
  numerous examples already identified
• Extensive sub-regional recreational facilities
  and environmentally friendly reserves
• However...
• Further progress towards sustainable development
  needs more active participation of the Freistaat
  eg. decontamination of water courses, more
  certainty on finance
• Regional competition for economic investment
  limits the pressure that can be applied to ensure
  that developments are sustainable
• Need to improve regional co-operation in
  sub-regional spatial planning eg. low density
  suburban residential development

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Integration of Environmental and Social Activities

• Issues to consider...
• Concern over levels of access to environmental
  information
• Environmental education should go beyond the
  school and include awareness raising and
  involvement
• Is there a strategic approach to reducing health
  risks through improving the environment? eg.
  health impacts of rising traffic pollution
• Environmental initiatives are not being continued
  beyond external funding timeframes eg Moelkau
  ecological farm
• Consider use of vacant land for sustainable food
  production
• Support small scale local environmental and
  social initiatives eg. building on good practice
  of garden for asylum seekers
• Need to develop exit strategies for short term
  employment programmes

18
Integration of Social Economic Activities

• Great progress in restoring and regenerating
  vacant housing
• Variety of initiatives for equality and social
  need
• However...
• 50,000 homes remain vacant so this effort needs
  to be sustained
• Build on existing sustainable training and
  education programmes to realise equality of
  opportunity

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A way forward...

• Bring together all your programmes as a
  sustainable development vision.
• Improve co-ordination between departments.
• Focus your budgets to deliver the vision.
• Communicate your successes.
• Build on your role as leaders.
• Be more inclusive in taking decisions.

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Questions?

• Draft report with you within 4 weeks for comment
  and correction
• Public release to stakeholders of the assessment
  report
• Leipzig and stakeholders prepare and implement
  smart action plan to advance sustainable
  development
• back in late 2003 to assess advances

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Finally...

• And thank you...
• Councillor John Tyrrell (Birmingham City Council)

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www.presud.org