Green City Promises and “Just Sustainabilities”

Nation states all around the world adopted a New Urban Agenda (NUA) at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. The NUA brings to the fore the importance of human settlements and urbanization in international development, following the agreements in previous conferences in Vancouver (1976) and Istanbul (1996). One key innovation of the NUA is the recognition of the transformative power of urbanization to deliver jobs, facilitate the spread of technology, and harness sustainability (UN-Habitat 2016). The NUA calls for cities that “leave no one behind”. This emphasis on addressing inequality also underpins other international development policy, such as the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The NUA calls for Green Cities as engines of sustainable economic growth, offering green investment opportunities such as environmentally friendly construction, sustainable transport, and waste management solutions. According to this international policy agenda, Green Cities should deliver all of the above while responding to changing societal demands. Urban inequality, however, is not foregrounded in Green Cities’ agendas. There is no clear insight about the integration of these two separate aspects of the NUA. I contend that visions of Green Cities as engines of sustainable economic growth are misplaced. Instead, Green Cities should advance urban futures that engage with the needs of citizens, address questions of social and environmental justice, and work with the existing city rather than imposing on it any models of development. My argument focuses on four themes: 1) the promises advanced in Green City discourses; 2) the efforts to integrate social justice agendas in environmental sustainability; 3) the need to revision the variety of natures that integrate the city; and, to conclude, 4) the focus on contradiction as a means to look for new ideas about the city