I noticed the headline above in the local evening paper while in Bristol over the weekend and followed up links from Forum for the Future:

With nine in ten people in the UK now living in cities, the majority are already struggling with issues including congestion, pollution, limited housing, energy production and consumption and waste.

The Sustainable Bristol City Region Programme is a 10-year plan to bring together leaders from the public, private and NGO sectors in the Bristol City Region to develop and implement solutions to these problems.

The programme was launched on Friday by Jonathan Porritt, describing the project as “a unique opportunity to turn theory into practice in establishing the kind of sustainable urban living on which our future depends”.

He went on to say:

“A growing number of cities the world over are now pioneering innovative new ideas, and leading cities in the UK need to be both learning from that network and taking a lead for themselves. The Bristol City Region is ideally placed to demonstrate precisely that kind of leadership, and Forum for the Future is very excited at the prospect of helping to make that happen.”

Source: Forum For the Future

EcoCities 2008 – a world summit conference to be held in April , has much on-line information on the concept of eco-cities – including a very informative interview with Richard Register