One of the most significant acts adopted by the UN was the Millennium Declaration of 8 September 2000. The document was adopted on the 55th Special Session of the UN General Assembly which took place between 6-8 September 2000 on the Millennium Summit. The key concept creator was UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was the author of a report which laid foundations for the Declaration: “We the people: the role of United Nations in the 21st Century”. →

In mid April, in the Center of Warsaw, the permissible level of harmful substances was exceeded. The harmful substance is suspended dust PM10 (polluted particles with the diameter of up to 10 micrometers). The regional Inspectorate of Environmental Protection (Wojewódzki Inspektorat Ochrony Środowiska) warns that in near future the following substance levels will be exceeded as well: PM 2.5 (pollutants with the diameter of up to 2.5 micrometer), benzopyren and nitrogen dioxide. It will refer to the whole city of Warsaw and other towns and cities in the Mazowsze region. The reason behind exceeded levels of harmful substances is most of all coal and domestic waste used as heating fuel by individuals as well as vehicle transport. →

The conference in Wrocław was assessed by its participants as very successful. Both, the format (speeches interwoven with films showing best practices in sustainable development) and the organization. The attendees of the Wrocław conference called “Friendly city planning” had an opportunity to read abstracts of all presentations. Every speaker was well prepared for the speech. Here are the abstracts: →

How joyful it is to wander narrow streets of a historical city from one kingdom of scent to another![1] says Juhani Pallasmaa in his book about architecture and senses.

The scent of a city builds its flavour and identity, even if its quite peculiar, for example in a musty Venice or backstreets of old towns with sour and oliy smells coming from the back of restaurants and bars. →

In June 2012 representatives of over 100 countries met at another Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro called “Rio+20”. Within the period of 20 years, i.e. since the previous meeting – the global population has risen from 5.5 bn to nearly 7 bn. Along with the growth, the number of global challenges has increased too, e.g. extreme poverty, existence of 2.5 bn people in primitive conditions with no access to basic sanitary facilities or rising emmission of greenhouse gases which threatens one third of living species with extinction. →

The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 64/236 of 24 December 2009, in which it decided to organize the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at the highest possible level in 2012, as well as its resolution 66/197 of 22 December 2011, Rio de Janeiro.  →

The second day of the conference was just as busy. The aim of the so called triangular task groups was to learn how to reach reasonable compromise between interest groups in an investment process. The participants were assigned to symbolic groups of investors, public officials and planners. The facilitators (this role was played by the speakers from Day 1) made triangular task groups composed of investors, public administration representatives and planners and then ran through the task prepared in advance. The task was about negotiating an investment offer that would be the best possible solution for all parties of the process. →

In Scandic Hotel, located near a well known building of Renoma shopping center in Wrocław, Day 1 came to an end. The lectures and presentations listed on the agenda of the regional conference on Friendly City Planning were ticked off. All participants showed up and remained until the end at full strength, which is an expected consequence of the chosen meeting formula. Speakers’ talks interwoven with film presentations kept the audience away from weariness and let everybody stay focused and intellectually efficient – quite a feat in a nine-hour concentration need. →