C40 Cities (originally C20 Cities), also known as the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, is a group of cities committed to the reduction of urban carbon emissions and adapting to climate change. The group believes it has an important rule to play as cities contain around 50% of the world’s population, consume three quarters of the world’s energy, and produce 80% per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions.

In October 2005, representatives of 18 leading world cities met in London to discuss joining forces to tackle global warming and climate change. The representatives saw the need for action and cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pledged to work together towards achieving that goal. At the end of the conference, a communiqué was signed which recognised the need for cities to take action and to cooperate on reducing climate emissions. The cities also promised a number of action points, including most notably the creation of procurement policies and alliances to accelerate the uptake of climate-friendly technologies and influence the market place.

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Before we will start our new PerfectCity Charter issue and poll within the next week, you still have got a few days to participate in our current poll. Please take a minute to vote for the most defining factors of the economic environment of the city in the future.

The next issue will be social services. By presenting a list of relevant factors of this issue to you, we are looking forward to your ideas and proposals on the integral parts. Besides sending your ideas you can vote on that from Thursday on.

We are looking forward to your comments and ideas.

According to the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index™, an annual research initiative designed to evaluate and rank how major cities compare in performing critical functions that connect markets and commerce around the world, London remains the global economy’s most influential city. The future, however, appears to belong to Asia and Eastern Europe, whose cities represent the fastest rising regions within the Index.

In overall rank, Shanghai had the largest jump – moving eight spots from 2007 to 2008 - bringing it into the top 25 of this year’s Index and demonstrating the growing importance of Asian cities to a progressively urbanized global economy. Moscow, a gateway for the fast-growing Eastern European region, showed the greatest improvement in actual Index score and had the most significant gain on London year-over-year. Further confirming the importance of Asia and Europe in the global economy, this year’s study also marks the displacement of Los Angeles from the top 10, making New York and Chicago the sole North American cities in the top grouping. The decline of Los Angeles in rank is due, in part, to factors around its role in the global financial services network, as well as the rise of European cities in the area of knowledge creation.

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Arup, a professional services firm providing engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment, and Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporate, as a client, have planned the world’s first purpose-built eco-city. Dongtan, located on the island of Chongming, near Shanghai, China, is designed not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also socially, economically and culturally sustainable.

Its goal is to be as close to carbon neutral as possible, with city vehicles that produce no carbon or particulate emissions and highly efficient water and energy systems. Dongtan will generate all of its energy needs from renewable sources including bio-fuels, wind farms and photovoltaic panels. A majority of Dongtan’s waste will be reused as biofuel for additional energy production and organic waste will be composted. Even human sewage will be composted and processed for energy and composting, greatly reducing or entirely eliminating landfill waste sites.

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When it comes to our PerfectCity Charter we would like to look into a new issue. This time the aim is to find out which factors are most important when it come to social services. The term “social services” has a wide ranging meaning. We want to focus on the general services provided by a city council to its citizens. Thus, social services are defined as benefits such as education, security or health care and the facilities providing and supporting them.

To see what is important for a city of the future in terms of the social services we composed a list of different factors. Please help us to evaluate these factors before we put them in the new poll and let our reader vote for them.

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According to a study by Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) and private bank Berenberg Bank, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart have the best prospects of German major cities. In contrast, industrial cities like Gelsenkirchen, Wuppertal and Chemnitz come last in respect to future prospects.

In light of recent trends in urbanisation, the companies decided to analyse the 30 biggest cities in Germany. Another reason for focussing on these cities is, according to Dr. Hans-Walter Peters, Co-owner of Berenberg Bank, that these cities have a significant impact on economic success of the whole of Germany.

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While I was doing a little research, I stumbled upon an interesting article by the Los Angeles Time. This article was on guerrilla gardening and I have never heard of this before. So, what is guerrilla gardening?

Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of non-violent direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists to reclaim the cities. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists take over and squat an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it. To summarize, guerrilla gardening is the act of seeding useful plants in public spaces.

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German Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) has observed the phenomenon of young and well-educated woman leaving their home regions (mainly rural regions) in East Germany in a report called “Women – men – spaces”.

The political change in Eastern Germany and in Eastern Europe 16 years ago was the beginning of dramatic social and economic transformations with impacts of demographic change in Eastern Germany. There has been a significant change in the population structure. The biggest labour migrant group included those between 18 and 35 years old, most of them women, and many well-educated. Besides the fact of a generally sinking birth rate in Germany as a whole (with the most severe decline experienced in the regions of the former GDR), labour migration impacts have narrowed the base of regional population pyramids - especially rural areas and in smaller towns. Not only are there greater numbers of older people than younger people but also fewer children today mean even fewer in the future. As a consequence, the population of eastern Germany is aging rapidly and cities are shrinking.

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One of our blog roll partner has an interesting contest. The World Mayor project, organised by City Mayors, seeks out mayors who have the vision, passion and skills to make their cities amazing places to live in, work in and visit. The World Mayor Project aims to show what outstanding mayors can achieve as well as raise their profiles nationally and internationally. It honours those who have served their communities selflessly and courageously and who have made significant contributions to the well-being of cities. The most outstanding mayor of 2008 will be presented with the World Mayor Award. Mayors from North and Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa are competing for the annual World Mayor Award.

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