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Cities seem decided to lead the world towards sustainable development. The first reason is simply their sheer size and the extraordinary concentration of resources, people and activities. Although average world figures conceal large differences across countries and regions and should be considered with caution, cities host more 16 1 Cities in an Era of Fragility than 50% of the inhabitants of the planet but consume around 75% of its resources and produce 75% of the overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The city of Malmö was one of the Habitat Scroll of Honour award winners for 2009, primed for its innovative, holistic approach to becoming a twenty-first-century eco-city. 3 The Sustainability Dynamics of the European Urban Archipelago Europe is first and foremost urban, an archipelago of 3,500 agglomerations with more than 10,000 inhabitants, 365 agglomerations with 100,000 inhabitants and 32 agglomerations with more than one million inhabitants. The constellation of European urban systems appears rather stable in terms of demographic growth.

Dissemination of best practices and sustainability indicators, suggested as two important instruments for a qualitative leap forward (UN/HABITAT 1996; UN 1997), led to an intense activity in compiling good practice guides and building indicator frameworks. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg 2002) provided a new impetus for a global deal to accelerate progress. Next to the world summits, the World Urban Forum, a biennial gathering established by the UN in 2002, examines rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.