News

From Hanover to Rio

By invitation of the regional capital Hanover the "Rio + 20 - Local Sustainability Congress" was held from 7.- 9. December, 2011 in conjunction with the fifth Network 21 Congress. This congress was backed by a confederation of 23, mainly nation-wide organisations. Here for the very first time in Germany 23 totally different political, economical, environmental and consumer-protection organisations gathered together successfully to discuss future topics practice-oriented at a local level.

Around 30 work groups totalling more than 600 representatives from municipalities, non-governmental organisations, associations, companies, politics, cultural, scientific and media experts - as well as interested lay-men - discussed questions such as : What has been achieved so far ? What demands and targets lie ahead of us in future ? What can local authorities do to make their finance policy sustainable ? What role will the economy adopt ? How will our cities develop to meet sustainable demands ? How to achieve a conscious fair style of living ? How can cities become climate-neutral ?

Under the motto "....the next generation" youngsters were interactively engaged in tackling topics of local sustainability in a preceding congress providing creative contributions for the Rio+20 Congress.

By way of conclusion all Congress participants in Hanover passed a declaration, which is intended to provide impulses for the German delegation of the UN-Summit for Sustainable Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro from 20.-22. June, 2012.

For this Congress the Wirtschafts-und Umweltdezernat have published the brochure entitled „Hanover on the way to Sustainability" showing exemplary projects which feature Hanover on its way to a sustainable, future-oriented city development. The examples selected make it clear that sustainability is a cross-sectional task, which takes the ecological, economical and social dimensions of our activities into consideration.

Declaration: Rio+20 - Local sustainability!
Many accomplishments, but more is to be done
download document
Size: 180 Kb

Hannover on the way to Sustainability
Sustainable projects and activities in the city
download document
Size: 180 Kb