The meeting of the Commission on Population and Development, which began yesterday and concludes on Friday, is focusing on the opportunities and challenges posed by increasing urbanization as UN news service reported.

The UN estimates that, by the end of this year, half of the world’s 6.7 billion people will live in urban areas.

This session of the Commission is “particularly interesting” because the topic of urbanization and its implications has not been dealt with for 10 years, said Hania Zlotnik, Director of the Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

“What we’re finding is that, as we expected, there’s still great reluctance by governments to acknowledge that urbanization can have even positive effects,” she said at a press conference earlier on Tuesday.

While urbanization poses a number of challenges to local government in terms of governance and the provision of basic services to an increasing population, it also offers opportunities for economic growth.

David Satterthwaite, from the International Institute for Environment and Development, emphasized that compact, well-designed and well-managed cities can generate a “fantastic” quality of life at a relatively low level of greenhouse gas emissions.

R: 3:30-3:50 PM

E:10:11-10:19 PM

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