Montreal will host a new office of UN-Habitat, a United Nations program aimed at “supporting the sustainable development of human settlements and cities,” it was announced on the sidelines of COP15 on Monday.
The team of the Quebec metropolis will be responsible for the “global program for green, resilient and sustainable cities”, indicates a press release from Montreal International. Its mission will be to develop “recommendations for policies and concrete actions in terms of sustainable urban development”.
“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, responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, quoted in the press release.
“Montreal 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,” it says. “Areas of collaboration” have been established with researchers from McGill University, Concordia University and the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence, MILA.
Already in October, UN-Habitat and MILA launched a “collaborative white paper” on how artificial intelligence can “support the development of socially and ecologically sustainable cities and human settlements”.
UN-Habitat’s headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, and the agency, established in 1978, is active in 90 countries. The Montreal team will work closely with those in Barcelona, Spain, and Hamburg, Germany.
This office is in addition to those of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol.
“This sixth UN office in Montreal will help showcase Montreal’s expertise in housing and the development of exemplary neighborhoods,” said Mayor Valérie Plante, also quoted in the press release. “In Montreal and around the world, we must densify urban areas intelligently by making more room for nature,” she argued.
Details, including the precise location of the new office and the number of people who will work there, have yet to be determined.