Crunch dominates cities' summit

Jean-Paul Huchon told delegates to keep talking about climate change

The global economic crisis is set to dominate a conference of the world's biggest cities under way in Australia.

But the president of the Metropolis Association, Jean-Paul Huchon, urged delegates not to overlook climate change and other crucial issues.

He is proposing a "bank of cities", a fund through which rich cities can help their poorer counterparts.

The Metropolis Association currently has 104 member cities boasting populations of more than one million.

The organisation predicts that by 2015 some 55% of cities with populations of one million or more will be in the Asia-Pacific region.

Representatives from those cities, which include Toronto, Tehran, Seoul, Sao Paulo and Mumbai, have descended on Sydney for the three-day conference.

The global economic crisis has cast a long and dark shadow over the conference, says the BBC's Nick Bryant, in Sydney.

Mr Huchon admitted the agenda would be dominated by the global financial meltdown. But he said climate change, urban renewal and sustainable development must not be ignored.

I don't think that this temporary problem that we have is going to push away climate change from the radar screens of decision-makers and the public Rajendra Pachauri Head of the IPCC

"The message is don't stop thinking about climate change, don't stop thinking about sustainable development, but give the cities the means and the money to fund their... investments," he told the AFP news agency.

Nobel-winning climate change expert Rajendra Pachauri predicted that the financial situation would not deflect attention away from climate change for too long.

"I don't think that this temporary problem that we have is going to push away climate change from the radar screens of decision-makers and the public," the head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told reporters on the sideline of the conference.

"I think the momentum of public support - and I would say even on the part of the leadership - the will and the desire to do things is there."

Mr Huchon, president of the Ile-de-France region - which includes Paris - has said he would like to create a development fund that would help rich cities fund poorer cities - a scheme he described as a "bank of cities".

This would help developing cities gain the necessary money to fund vital transport, housing, welfare and other projects.