Sustainable Cities

• By 2050, more than half the population of most ASEAN Member States (AMS) will live in cities,
and by 2035 the ASEAN region will have at least five mega-cities.
• Cities are a laboratory of local and global challenges and solutions, and ASEAN cities are
frequently frontrunners in developing sustainable (model) cities, with multiple good practices
shared through ASEAN programmes on sustainable cities.
• Cities need to improve solid waste and wastewater management systems, control air pollution,
and alleviate traffic congestion as well as plan for increasing population, providing sustainable
forms of transport and housing, while confronting increasing threats from climate change and
other environmental damage. This wide range of interrelated problems calls for integrated
responses that go beyond traditional siloed policymaking approaches.
• Actions on climate change adaptation and mitigation, localizing and delivering the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), reducing poverty and inequalities, and advancing a circular
economy, will help the ASEAN region meet its sustainable development objectives.
• The ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Strategy recognizes the challenge that climate change
poses, particularly to coastal cities, necessitating efforts to improve resilience to city flooding.
• COVID-19 has increased solid waste (including medical waste and single-use plastics) among
other negative impacts on the environment and severely disrupted life and economic progress
in ASEAN cities. There is, however, an opportunity for a “green” recovery and building back
better.
• The ASEAN Smart Cities Network is responding to the fourth industrial revolution and
digitalization of the ASEAN economies through smart city technologies.
• Long-term planning of ASEAN cities is an urgent priority, and some cities are already moving
towards relieving some of the stresses on existing mega-cities by developing new or satellite
cities that build in sustainability from the outset.
• SDG 11 on cities includes several environment-related targets; implementing them would
significantly contribute to reducing the environmental impact of cities. Cities would also greatly
benefit from implementing other city-related SDG targets.