(As approved by the participants at the European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns in Aalborg, Denmark on 27 May 1994)

• Part I: Consensus Declaration: European Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability

• Part II: The European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign

• Part III: Engaging in Local Agenda 21 Processes: Local Action Plans Toward Sustainability

Part I: Consensus Declaration: European Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability

The role of European cities and towns

We, European cities and towns, signatories of this Charter, state that in the course of history, our towns have existed within and outlasted empires, nation states, and regimes and have survived as centres of social life, carriers of our economies, and guardians of culture, heritage and tradition. Along with families and neighbourhoods, towns have been the basic elements of our societies and states. Towns have been the centres of industry, craft, trade, education and government.

We understand that our present urban lifestyle, in particular our patterns of division of labour and functions, land-use, transport, industrial production, agriculture, consumption, and leisure activities, and hence our standard of living, make us essentially responsible for many environmental problems humankind is facing. This is particularly relevant as 80 percent of Europe's population live in urban areas.

We have learnt that present levels of resource consumption in the industrialised countries cannot be achieved by all people currently living, much less by future generations, without destroying the natural capital.