ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Good public spaces enhance community cohesion and promote health, happiness, and well-being for all citizens as well as fostering investment, economic development and environmental sustainability. Improving public spaces’ quality and provision together with increased walkability and public transportation use are fundamental measures to improve not only the cities’ quality of life but also their environmental sustainability. Youth have both special concerns and special responsibilities in relation to the environment. A number of environmental risks and hazards disproportionately affect young people, who have to live for an extended period with the deteriorating environment bequeathed to them by earlier generations. Young people will be compelled to engage in new forms of action and activism that will generate effective responses to ecological challenges. It is therefore in the interest of the youth to ensure that environment is not depleted completely30

The Youth CPI Survey questionnaire indicated that more that 70% of the youths are satisfied with the level of sustainability in their cities in comparison with 26.7% think that their cities are environmentally unfriendly and unsustainable.