ICLEI Secretary General reflects on 15 years with ICLEI

08-05-07

On 1 May 2007, ICLEI Secretary General Konrad Otto-Zimmermann celebrated his 15th anniversary with ICLEI. Konrad supported ICLEI’s development in Europe from the outset in 1990 and officially joined the organization as Deputy Secretary General for Europe on 1 May 1992. The Executive Committee appointed Konrad to serve as Secretary General from January 2002. ICLEI Founder and first Secretary General Jeb Brugmann, who now serves on the international Advisory Council of the association, has asked Konrad for his reflections on 15 years of working with ICLEI. After three years of founding preparations Jeb led ICLEI from 1990 until 2000. Jeb:
Konrad, with 15 years as a leader on the ICLEI management team, you have worked longer at building this 'worldwide movement' than anyone. You participated in ICLEI's founding congress at the United Nations in 1990, and shortly thereafter took on the task of building the new organization in Europe. From this vantage point you have witnessed a great deal of change in the work of cities and towns towards sustainability. What are some of the key milestones and changes in your mind? Are we more prepared today for the sustainability challenges of the next decades? Konrad: Well, during the lifetime of ICLEI until today, the world population has grown by 1.3 billion people or 25 per cent. The share of urban population in the world has grown by approximately 45 per cent. Between 1990 and 2004 global greenhouse gas emissions by human activities increased by about 25%.

Konrad and Jeb strategizing about ICLEI's opporunities - 1991

Obviously, an organization like ICLEI – even with more than 500 cities representing more than 300 million people and most effective programs – cannot stop or revert a development that even the united nations of this world have not been able to influence significantly. But during this period, significant change happened at a more subtle level: - sustainability has become the overarching goal of an ever increasing number of cities; - more and more local governments see the need for aggressive local action, and the continuous growth of ICLEI’s membership is only one indicator for this; - local governments are receiving more and more recognition as major actors on the national and international stages. Are we more prepared for the challenges? I think: yes. Cities are extensively networked, have their channel to circulate information and experiences around the world fast. Vertical channels of exchange and cooperation between local governments, provincial/ state/ prefectural governments, national governments and international agencies are established. Cities have access to knowledge, planning concepts and solutions for their decision making. Effective management systems and tools are available. Whether or not sufficient action is being taken is then a matter of will, political environment and economic framework conditions. Jeb: Yet the long-predicted moments of large scale ecological change seem much closer – climate change is happening; mass extinctions are underway; in spite of eco-efficiency we have not reduced total resource consumption and pollution. How do you deal with predictions that are turning into realities? Does it change the job of ICLEI? Konrad: All of us want to “save the world”, no? And we are dedicating our lives to working towards sustainable development. But we realize that we can only contribute a modest bit, that we haven’t been able to stop environmental degradation or prevent climate change. But we may have contributed to slowing the negative development down. Climate change is happening, and ICLEI’s strategy is twofold: First, we will continue pushing for a deep reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by working with cities in the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. We will try to bring in new cities that undertake their first steps towards emission reduction, but we will also work with the advanced cities that have set themselves ambitious targets such a “zero CO2 emission”. Secondly, we will have to support cities in their efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change. It is frustrating to see that still so many adverse forces drive our economy, our production and consumption, into the wrong direction. While everyone understands that we need to curb CO2 emissions, the stock markets reward airlines that report on growing numbers of passenger/miles, politicians praise open sky agreements which will lead to cheaper and thus more flights, and we consumers take advantage of cheap airfares, enjoy weekend flights across our continent and switch from the train to the airplane. And air traffic is only one of many examples. There are still too many perverse subsidies and big business interests standing in the way. It would therefore be naïve to think that we could change the world solely through better planning and technology. We must exert pressure on political decision makers at all levels to set reasonable frameworks for production and consumption. We have therefore supported the establishment of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change as a political pressure group of Mayors who raise their voice in the political arena, and we look forward to joining forces with United Cities and Local Governments for this purpose. Jeb: When you and I first met at the United Nations in 1990 and started ICLEI the whole field of urban environmental management was still young. City-based management of the global environmental commons was a totally new idea. At ICLEI we were pioneers. I remember how governments at the preparatory meetings for the 1992 Earth Summit were still arguing about how to stop urban population growth. But since then most all of the UN programs and many governments have created national and international programs on urban environmental management and sustainability. Urban sustainability has become an anchor agenda in the European Union. I guess we can feel good about this, but as ICLEI Secretary General you still have an organization to build and run. How does the 'mainstreaming' of the ICLEI agenda change ICLEI's role? Is ICLEI still the pioneer or one among many? Konrad: I think it is fair to say that ICLEI has been a pioneer in many fields of urban sustainability, but it is also fair to acknowledge that over time many individuals and organizations have also been creative and progressive. We find ourselves amongst other, fellow driving forces. This is mutually reinforcing and encouraging. When we look at single pieces of our work then we can in each instance say that another organization could have done the same. But there is no other organization around that has this unique combination of (1) being a membership association of local government with a thriving network of cities and towns, (2) driving a movement of cities for new governance, sustainability management, climate protection, freshwater management, biodiversity protection and sustainable procurement, and (3) offering as an agency information, training and consultancy services to support the movement. We can be proud that some of the mainstreaming has happened around ideas and concepts that ICLEI created. Jeb, you have yourself led ICLEI in its first decade, and I think you have managed to unleash the creativity and energy of our member local governments, of the politicians on our Executive Committee and our staff, while always keeping a strategic focus. In the year when I became Secretary General, 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg was held. We conducted a worldwide consultation process and adapted our program framework and strategy to the changing policy environment and development patterns. Our name change to “Local Governments for Sustainability” marked a new positioning of ICLEI in the international arena, which was needed for us to stay forefront thinkers, innovators and leaders. With Local Agenda 21 – that you conceived in the lead up to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit – having become our largest initiative in terms of local governments “infected” by the idea of participatory sustainable development planning, ICLEI has never been merely ”environmental” in a narrow sense. But the outside world perceived it that way, mainly because of our name. We needed to convey that ICLEI is about sustainability in a broader sense, helping cities to become sustain-able, “able to be sustained” under conditions of population growth and rapid urbanization, climate change, and increasing ecological footprints while resources are shrinking. And that we work towards global sustainability through concerted local actions. Jeb: Speaking of global urbanization, you and I used to disagree a bit about the appropriate scale of cities. I thought that it was an unstoppable demographic shift and that large scale urbanization offered untapped opportunities. You have been a champion of smaller urban settlements. Speaking now in the year when half of humanity actually is living in cities, what are your thoughts on urban growth management today? Konrad: Your foresight was right, I must admit. You were more realistic while I though that central governments in many countries could still apply a policy of “decentralized concentration”, meaning that they would support the development of a multitude of urban centers across their countries in order to direct migration from rural areas into these decentralized cities rather than to let an uncontrolled growth of the single metropolis happen. I remember that in a report to the UN Commission for Sustainable Development you “praised” cities for their potential of eco-efficiency (e.g., because their density would allow for efficient transport, energy and water infrastructure systems), while I pointed out that the urban lifestyle leads to higher consumption and is more wasteful. Governments in many countries have failed to implement effective spatial development policies. We read in the State of the World's Cities Report 2006/7 that by 2030 cities will be home to almost four billion people, or 80 per cent of the world's urban population. We face the reality of megacities, and rural poverty has turned into urban poverty with one billion people living in slums. I still believe that balanced spatial planning and regional economic development policy with a multitude of thriving cities provides better options for people’s livelihoods than the concentration of the majority of a country’s population in one or two megacities. If most growth is presently taking place in smaller to medium cities, planning and policy making should support the development of many attractive, smaller sub-centers across a country in order to avoid the downsides of almost unmanageable megacities. Jeb: At various times we can say that the international community really listened to the ICLEI movement of local governments. The Kyoto meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 1997 (COP-3) was one of those milestones, when Mayors from different continents addressed the environment Ministers of the world about their greenhouse gas reduction achievements before the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. Do you think that international bodies are listening better today than ten years ago? Are they more open to local government involvement? Are we part of their team, or still just one of the so-called 'major groups', to be stage-managed as a 'stakeholder'? Konrad: You can look at it from different sides. On the on hand, local governments do still not sit at the table in their own right as a distinct sphere of government. They are still considered “non-government organizations” rather than as Local Government Organizations as they should be. On the other side, for a complex inter-governmental mechanism like the United Nations the current culture of involving nine ‘major groups’ in the negotiations and discussions must still be seen as huge progress. Some governments are not happy with the presence of these groups and would like to reverse the development. So let us appreciate, consolidate and defend what we have got through solid work.
I think all international local government associations must now form an alliance, a strong but flexible, strategically governed network of forces working for decentralization, responsible leadership and sustainability. Jeb: The world map had changed in 15 years. How has the ICLEI map changed? Are there major areas of growth? Are their still holes? What about China, India and the CIS? Konrad: Well, the most amazing observation is that ICLEI continues to grow in terms of membership, activities and staff. We have still kept our early foundations in North America, Europe and Oceania. Our membership in Australia and the United States has grown significantly, and it is worthwhile noting that these are two countries whose governments have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and avoided making concrete greenhouse gas reduction commitments, and in which our Cities for Climate Protection Campaign is (therefore?) particularly strong. The fact that Delhi, India has joined ICLEI as the 500th Member has symbolic value. It expresses a direction of ICLEI’s future opportunities to influence global sustainability – Asia. Whereas London took 130 years to grow from one to eight million, Bangkok took 45 years, Dhaka 37 years and Seoul only 25 years, says research by UN-Habitat, the United Nations Settlement Programme. Asia has more than half of the world’s large cities with more than 10 million people. By 2015, Asian developing countries will hold three of the world’s five largest urban agglomerations: Mumbai, Dhaka and Delhi. I believe that ICLEI, having initially developed most strongly in North America and Europe and then in Australia, and also having a solid membership base in Africa and Latin America, is at the start of tremendous membership growth in Asia. We currently have 84 Members in Asia, constituting 16 per cent of our global Membership, but 37 per cent of the total population represented by our global Membership. This means our members in Asia are mostly large cities. But Asia now holds 61 per cent of the global population, so the continent is still underrepresented in ICLEI. What have we done? To begin, our membership has modified the composition of our Executive Committee so that Asia has now six of 23 seats. And on the operational side we have established four offices in the various sub-regions of Asia. ICLEI Member local governments on all continents will benefit from engaging with Asian cities, understanding their challenges and sharing solutions. Given the rapid urbanization and economic growth in Asia, the way Asian cities develop – whether sustainably and eco-efficiently or not – will make Planet Earth notice. Jeb: One last question. Your daughters have all grown up during these ICLEI years. Other ICLEI leaders have come and gone. What keeps you going? What are the parts of your job that renew your sense that you want to keep doing this? Konrad: I am afraid ICLEI’s job will never be finished – too much is to be done. On a personal level, I like the unique combination of tasks, responsibilities and requirements of my job, from seeing the big picture to paying attention to detail. I like working and continuously learning in a multicultural environment. The job requires creativity; diplomacy; concept development; relationship-building; organizational, financial and operational management; and much more. It is stressful, though, to do all of this under permanent constraint on resources; under public funding regimes that require us to dedicate an unjustifiably high amount of our capacity to the securing of resources; and in an environment where there are only a few funders and donors, at whose doors we inevitably find ourselves in the competitive company of UN agencies, universities, NGOs, consulting firms … By the way, when I factor the time I spent from 1990 until April 1992 when I did voluntary work to prepare the opening of the European Secretariat before I was hired, and when I consider my 10- to 12-hour working days, then I can actually consider today as a celebration of 20 years of service for ICLEI [smiles]. Let me add a word about the length of service. Working internationally means meeting a variety of cultures. In my home country of Germany, staying with the same employer for 15 years is highly appreciated as faithfulness vis-à-vis your organization because your employer would value loyalty, long-term experience and institutional memory. In other countries you are regarded as inflexible and immobile, and might hurt your career if you stay longer than four or five years. Isn’t it interesting that seven of ten of ICLEI’s longest serving colleagues worldwide are Europeans? After all these years, much of our work remains project-based in terms of funding, which leads to a higher turnover of staff than, for example, municipal administrations. Our long-term staff are therefore important to help our association steer an unwavering course, to keep institutional memory, to help us avoid the mistakes that an organization inevitably has made over time, and to ensure coherence as a global organization and consistency in our approach. Jeb: Thank you Konrad and happy anniversary! It is fun to think back 15 years to our start together. I hope that ICLEI continues to benefit from your leadership, both maintaining the coherence of ICLEI’s international approaches – striving for that coordinated global effort – while also adapting approaches in the face of rapidly changing requirements in the years ahead.