Cities foster peaceful interaction between citizens of different origin, religion and lifestyle, enable a vibrant cultural life and drive social and economic innovation that will play a key role in the battle against climate change. Greens believe that the utopian view of zero emission cities is possible. However, unless cities promote the social integration and political participation of all their inhabitants while improving the conditions of the poor and involving all citizens in creating the future, there will be no solution to the climate crisis.
Greens support city policies that combat urban sprawl and fight social, economic and cultural disintegration. These policies must:

Ø Improve the quality of life for the population in general;
Ø Protect non-commercial spaces and public property from private exploitation;
Ø Rebalance the equilibrium between cities and nature.

Cities hold the key to solving two of humankind’s most pressing problems: climate change and poverty. For these reasons Greens support the development of stronger cooperation among cities on a wide range of issues, including:

Ø Sharing of best practices;
Ø Exchange of civil servants;
Ø Common cultural projects and creative city initiatives;
Ø Improving low-carbon mobility schemes;
Ø Reducing CO2 emissions;
Ø Health, water and waste management.

Sustainable city development requires that ecosystem needs be prioritised and that a balance be found between the needs of cities and rural areas. Today cities are exercising enormous pressure on the countryside by occupying ever more green lands, absorbing all kind of resources from rural areas and using them as a dump for urban emissions and waste. Sustainable cities must reduce their ecological footprint by becoming more self-reliant and resource-efficient.