Mara Cossu: Collective governance mechanisms are needed to address urban challenges

States need new mechanisms of collective governance and interagency cooperation to address modern urban and climate challenges.

Report informs that Mara Cossu, a representative of Italy's Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, said this in a video address at an event held as part of WUF13 in Baku.

According to her, sustainable development and territorial planning are becoming increasingly complex tasks that require joint work by different levels of government and institutions.

Cossu noted that shared databases and comparable statistics are now becoming a key tool for addressing urban development problems and implementing climate policy.

According to her, national governments and international organizations should use data not to create rankings between cities, but to develop joint solutions and exchange experience.

"Data is needed not for competition between territories, but for joint work," she said.

She also said that Italy is participating in the development of a global system for monitoring SDG localization together with the OECD and UN-Habitat.