The city of Montreal has been chosen to host a new United Nations office that will be responsible for the “global program for green, resilient and sustainable cities”.
The UN agency UN-Habitat, which has its headquarters in Kenya, has chosen the Quebec metropolis to set up its new office, which will support “the sustainable development of cities using the latest scientific and technological advances”.
Stéphane Paquet, President and CEO of the Montreal International organization, which will support UN-Habitat in the creation of the new office, pointed out that the metropolis was selected because of “its cutting-edge ecosystems in sustainable development and artificial intelligence, as well as its academic institutions and its pool of international organizations”.
Researchers from McGill University, Concordia University and the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence, MILA, have already undertaken “avenues of collaboration” with the UN agency.
Neil Khor, the chief of staff of the UN-Habitat office, added that Montreal’s bilingualism had also been an important factor.
“We have a lot of projects in English-speaking countries, but also in French-speaking countries, particularly in West Africa,” said Mr. Khor during an interview with The Canadian Press.
The Montreal office will employ 28 people.
Faced with the “most urgent needs”
By 2030, 60% of the world’s population will reside in urban settings, according to UN-Habitat. The agency’s mission is to find solutions to issues related to lack of housing, the growth of slums, public transport, water and electricity supply, poverty, crime and disasters. due to climate change.
The Montreal team will be responsible for “responding to the most urgent needs, by focusing in particular on artificial intelligence, while developing a multidisciplinary platform that will better take into account the particularities of the cities and communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climatic changes “.
The announcement was made at COP15 on Monday afternoon in the presence of several elected officials.
“This office will help Montreal and Canada develop concrete solutions to make cities greener, more resilient, more sustainable and ready to seize the opportunities associated with tomorrow’s economy,” said Federal Minister Pascale St-Onge.
The Minister of International Relations of Quebec, Martine Biron, indicated that this decision “reaffirms the importance given by Quebec to the fight against climate change and to welcoming international organizations that choose to establish themselves here”. .
“In Montreal and around the world, we must densify urban areas intelligently by making more room for nature,” said Mayor Valérie Plante.
The office of the “global program for green, resilient and sustainable cities” will be the sixth UN office in Montreal, which already hosts the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Agency for Refugees, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol.