The Charter of European Sustainable Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability otherwise known as the Aalborg Charter (1994) is an
urban environment
An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urba ...
sustainability
Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
initiative approved by the participants at the first European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns in
Aalborg, Denmark
Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...
. It is inspired by the
Rio Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92, Cúpula da Terra), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 t ...
’s Local Agenda 21 plan, and was developed to contribute to the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
’s Environmental Action Programme, ‘Towards Sustainability’.
The Charter is based on the consensus of individuals, municipalities, NGOs, national and international organisations, and scientific bodies.
Approximately 2700 local authorities from more than 40 countries have signed the Charter. This has resulted in the largest European movement of its type.
There are three related parts to the Charter. Part 1 is a consensus declaration of European sustainable cities and towns towards sustainability. Part 2 relates to the creation of the European Sustainable Cities & Towns Campaign. Part 3 is declaration of intent that local governments will seek to engage in Local Agenda 21 processes.
The Aalborg Commitments
Ten years after the release of the Aalborg Charter, the 4th European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns was again held in Aalborg (2004).
The purpose of the event was to develop a common understanding of sustainability, and as a consequence to develop a framework to be used at the local level that would better articulate how to embed sustainability across municipality sectors. By consensus of participants, including organisations such as Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling (ACRR); Climate Alliance -Klima-Bündnis -Alianza del Climae.V; Council of European Municipalities & Regions (CEMR); Energie Cités; EUROCITIES; ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability; Medcities; Union of Baltic Cities (UBC), and the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
(WHO) - Healthy Cities, the Aalborg Commitments were agreed on and have so far been signed by more than 700 mayors from across Europe.
The Commitments are:
[ ]
# Governance
# Urban management
# Natural common goods
# Responsible consumption
# Planning and design
# Better mobility
# Local action for health
# Sustainable local economy
# Social equity and justice
# Local to global
References
{{Sustainability
1994 in Denmark
1994 in international relations
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
Law of Denmark