Dr. Steve Hammer on JUCCCE's Mayoral Training Program
Note: The following article was taken from Treehugger.com.
"There are lots of questions" To meet its ambitious goals -- a 20 percent increase in energy productivity and a ten percent decrease in emissions compared to 2005 levels by the end of 2010 -- China will need to rely on strong national policies, like the so-called "green" stimulus package. But it will also require the determination of the officials overseeing the country's ferocious, unprecedented urbanization -- China's mayors.
To arm them with the know-how they want and the connections they need, the government has turned to Dr. Steve Hammer, the director of the Urban Energy Program at Columbia and an expert on New York City and London's sustainability plans. Some lessons from those cities apply, he tells TreeHugger -- and like some Chinese cities, some lessons need to be built from scratch.Organized by JUCCCE, the Joint US-China Cooperation on Clean Energy, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, this year's inaugural program on energy smart cities consisted of a week-long training session for mayors from 50 of China's largest cities. Over the next three years, 600 Mayors, Deputy Mayors, and Officials will visit Beijing's National Mayoral Training Center to learn more about clean development.
After being expanded this year, the training program brought in big minds from business, industry and government in China and the West. Alongside venture capitalists and management consultants, Chinese mayors heard from former Deputy Mayor of London Nicky Gavron and New York City's sustainability chief Dr. Rohit Aggarwala.
