Mark Walport Quotes

Brazil will change when its cities change.

Cities can be the engine of social equity and economic opportunity. They can help us reduce our carbon footprint and protect the global environment. That is why it is so important that we work together to build the capacity of mayors and all those concerned in planning and running sustainable cities.

Cities are not problems. They are solutions.

If managed well, urbanization can create enormous opportunities: allowing innovation and new ideas to emerge, saving energy, land and natural resources, managing climate and the risk of disasters.

After working in cities for nearly 40 years, I am telling you that every city can improve its quality of life in less than three years, no matter the scale or the financial conditions.

I care about making New York better.

As mayor of Anchorage, with 43 percent of the state's population, we have worked on a variety of projects from road projects to renewable energy to a variety of things.

As mayor of San Francisco, I will provide the vision and work hard to make San Francisco a beautiful, well-planned city with excellent housing and transportation options.

Cities with clean air gain an economic advantage, because where people want to live and work, businesses want to invest.

I want to live in a city where the future is being mapped out.

I have realized after all these years that a city that has a good quality of life attracts jobs. People don't want to invest in places if there is no quality of life.

So that we focus not on competing visions for Europe but on what Europe can do to improve economic growth, to give us a cleaner environment, to create more jobs, to make us more secure.

Urban development in India... will be the biggest sunrise industry that any country has seen in any part of the world.

As the world's 'most dynamic' cities seek to manage their own urban growth, American state and local officials have much to offer. Our mayors can share their experiences in urban design, clean energy projects, Smart Grids, codes for energy efficient buildings, transportation safety, and innovative environmental solutions.

Cities perform most functions in a very Industrial Age model.

We will primarily focus on affordable housing, water supply and transport infrastructure, as these are critical for Mumbai. Infrastructure deficit is an issue in all urban areas.

I want to make Seoul more attractive. I want to make it a good investment.

The government only makes restrictive rules, they don't show you what to do so you know, OK, here's where we need this many apartments, with open space, playgrounds, kindergartens.

In 2007, the majority of the world’s population – over 3 billion of us – will live in urban areas for the first time in history.

Some policies may promote growth in ways that will increase poverty; others may promote growth in ways that will reduce it. Some growth strategies may be good for the environment; others may not be.

We can’t be a great country unless we have great cities.

Mayors, I think, tend to be more no-nonsense, and you look for economic opportunities for your communities.

When one deals with urban issues, one never deals with clear black-and-white issues; they're all trade-offs. Important urban issues present conflicting values.

India's sprawling subcontinent can never become a plus-size Singapore. But perhaps we can weave together an urban web that is the equivalent of a thousand Singapores.

We need a system where some politicians - who quite rightly respond to the public mood - are prepared to stand up in favour of housebuilding, so I came up with a system that gives local people something they really want in return for building more homes. In our case in Hatfield, it's a new town centre.