With cities recognized as being at the forefront of addressing global climate change, it is clear that urbanization of the future will need to be very different from urbanization of the past, and from current trajectories. There is an urgent need for a transformative urban future that is socially just, inclusive, and ecologically viable.
The biggest challenge to this transformative urban agenda is improving governance to achieve sustainability goals in places where it currently is dysfunctional, corrupt, inefficient, and/or incompetent, even though all required policies and regulations are nominally present. A greater focus on rights-based approaches needs to facilitate processes through which desperately needed city investments can be made in inclusive, transparent, and accountable terms. Until social gaps are closed, inequity will rise both within and among cities…