ANGELES City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin, Jr. wants to create large open spaces in the city which are environment-friendly and disaster-resilient.

In relation to this, he signed Executive Order (EO) No. 35, also known as “Reconstituting the Angeles City Technical Working Group on the Building Climate Resiliency through Urban Plans and Designs (BCRUPD) project.”

According to Lazatin, this is to secure the general welfare of his constituents.

“There is nothing more important than the safety of Angelenos, that is why we aim to build a disaster-resilient community,” he said.

This is also in accordance with the law, he added, specifically the Climate Change Act of 2009 which states that the local government unit (LGU) shall be the frontline in the formulation of adaptation plans consistent with the National Climate Change Framework Strategy.

Moreover, Angeles City is one of the five demonstration cities of the BCRUPD project, which will be funded by the German government for three years.

The city was selected for its ability to represent one of five ecosystems and presented a unique opportunity to underscore urban heat as slow-onset impact of climate change.

Angeles also qualified to be a case study on how city planning and designing could be enhanced to address this impact.

It can be recalled that in 1978 General Assembly, the UN-Habitat and the United Nations Programme for Human Settlements was mandated to raise issues of urban growth.

UN-Habitat shall coordinate with governments and local partners to define a vision that pursues a sustainable urban future for all. (PR)