Like his predecessors, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been weighing up the idea of relocating the capital city away from crowded, polluted Jakarta. But transferring the national government to a new city is an escapism that won't solve Jakarta's problems; only an aggressive commitment to transport and other infrastructure investments will do that.
The 2010 World Disasters Report highlights the "urban risk divide" between wealthy cities like Tokyo and poorer cities like Kathmandu, Manila and Jakarta which would face serious losses in any emergency.
As coastal and delta cities face the impacts of rising sea levels due to climate change, planners are readying with a combination of sea wall solutions, ecological engineering and urban design, which one says will buy us three centuries of security.
The clear strategies employed by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group to exchange lessons and best practices on climate change action between mayors provide a great lesson in knowing what one can really achieve, in order to fully achieve it.
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Vadim Rossman is a professor at the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg.
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
