2022 WEHD Conference

Currently, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, this is expected to be around 70%. Cities occupy just 3% of the Earth’s land, but account for 60-80% of energy consumption and 75% of global CO₂ emissions. They are responsible for the annual generation of 2.01 billion tons of municipal solid waste and it is expected to grow 70% next thirty years. Global risks such as climate change and pandemics (more than 90% of COVID-19 cases occurred in urban areas) largely impact urban life, including cities’ basic services, biodiversity, environment, infrastructure, housing, human livelihoods and health. Cities are also powerhouses of economic growth, contributing about 60% of global GDP. The future has cities; cities are the future. Inevitably, global challenges will be won or lost within the cities.

This scenario raises multiple challenges. Transition to healthier and more sustainable cities is the first one. Transition to what? With whom? And through what kind of interventions and based on what frameworks? Which indicators should be used? How to ensure that this transition leaves no one behind? Which policies are needed to ensure a soft, inclusive and effective transition to a condition of greater prosperity, equity and wellbeing for all? In this conference, which takes place under the World Environmental Health Day celebration, we have invited recognized experts from different fields to discuss urban planning as the key for a successful transition to healthy cities.

How and what must be changed? How can be better defined and implemented evidence-based city planning policies? How and why is it important to get aboard citizens in planning and governing the city of the future? How and why urban biodiversity may lead to healthy and sustainable cities? How and why the change of urban lifestyles impacts the health of the population living in cities? These are some questions that will drive the conference next September 26, 2022 at Lisbon, Portugal.