BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 21. Housing policy plays
an indispensable role in securing the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), while rapid population growth and a
widening affordable housing deficit present an increasingly severe
challenge for modern municipalities, said Stefan Wagner,
representative of the city of Bonn (Germany), Trend reports.


He made the remarks on Thursday during a specialized session
titled "Does Future Housing Align with Today's SDGs? How
Localization Strategies Help Us Get Back on Track," held within the
framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in
Baku.


According to him, the population of Bonn has expanded by nearly
16 percent over the past three decades, dramatically intensifying
commercial pressures on the local real estate market, particularly
for highly vulnerable socioeconomic demographics, including
students, elderly citizens, single parents, and persons with
disabilities.


Wagner noted that a substantial segment of urban residents
already allocates more than one-third of their aggregate household
income strictly toward housing costs, while the volume of citizens
unable to afford baseline rents continues to climb. He emphasized
that housing accessibility has crystallized into one of the central
social pillars of contemporary metropolitan policymaking, not only
within Germany but across the vast majority of European cities.


The Bonn representative concurrently directed sharp analytical
focus toward the intersecting macroeconomic and environmental
dimensions of the crisis. He pointed out that highly constrained
urban land parcels, surging construction material prices, and a
marked decline in the volume of new affordable housing project
pipelines collectively complicate conditions across the real estate
sector. Furthermore, Wagner reported that the building and
residential housing sector accounts for approximately 35 percent of
Germany's total carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) emissions, rendering
immediate, aggressive interventions to curb energy consumption
non-negotiable. This baseline requires scaling distributed
renewable energy grids and executing far more rational spatial
zoning models across municipal land banks.


He reported that the municipality of Bonn is actively pioneering
advanced methodologies for the localization of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG localization). Specifically, the
municipality formally ratified its comprehensive Municipal
Sustainable Development Strategy in 2019, followed by the
integration of a dedicated, independent tracking module focusing
entirely on housing frameworks and resilient neighborhoods within
its 2020 and 2022 Voluntary Local Review (VLR) reporting metrics.
Concurrently, Wagner announced that the city is currently
engineering an interactive, data-driven digital dashboard populated
with real-time indicators mapping localized rental indices, the
aggregate volume of social housing units, per-capita residential
square footage allocations, and proximity to foundational public
services.


Today marks the fifth day of WUF13 in Baku.


The first day included a ministerial meeting dedicated to the
New Urban Agenda, a ministerial roundtable, assemblies for women
and civil society, business sessions, and discussions on urban
prosperity. An official ceremony marking the raising of the UN and
Azerbaijani flags also took place.







The second day stood out for the inaugural Leaders' Summit,
featuring high-level discussions on the global housing crisis,
urbanization policy, and urban resilience. Concurrently, the
opening of the Mexico City pavilion took place, serving as a
significant platform for expanding cooperation with the Latin
American region and preparing for WUF14.


The third day of WUF13 featured a comprehensive program of
events covering the global housing crisis, the formation of safe
and inclusive cities, climate resilience, artificial intelligence
and urban governance, green urbanization, social equity, and
sustainable transport.


One of the highlights of the third day was the signing of a
sister-city memorandum between the Azerbaijani city of Shusha and
the Turkish city of Trabzon.


The fourth day of WUF13 featured a broad program of events
dedicated to urbanization, climate change, inclusive urban
development, housing policy, and sustainable governance.


One of the important events of the UN Special Programme for the
Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) Cities Forum, held on the fourth
day, was the announcement of Almaty’s official accession to the
“Declaration of Intent on the Establishment of the SPECA Smart
Climate-Resilient Cities Forum.”


Also, for the first time in WUF history and at Azerbaijan’s
initiative, the “WUF13 NGO Forum: Global Partnership and
Decision-Making” was held.


WUF13, which has attracted more than 40,000 registered
participants from 182 countries, will continue until May 22. Held
under the theme “Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and
communities,” the forum brings together governments, international
organizations, experts, and representatives of civil society to
strengthen global cooperation in the field of sustainable urban
development.