Fringe dwellers may be taxed

A "suburb tax" for people who stretch resources by living on the fringes of cities was among the ideas for greener settlements floated by the executive director of the United Nations human settlement programme.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General Dr Anna Tibaijuka told a public gathering in Auckland last week the world could not tackle climate change and other environmental issues without redesigning city living.

Cars had given us inefficient, sprawling settlements, she said.

"Maybe there is a case for putting up a tax and those who live in the suburbs have to pay it."

Dr Tibaijuka is the executive director of UN-HABITAT, the arm of the UN charged with promoting socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities.

She told an audience made up largely of students at Auckland University that most human consumption and waste took place in towns and cities.

Half of humanity lived in urban areas and that number was growing on every continent. "We are now an urban species," she said.

An audience member jokingly asked Dr Tibaijuka if she had met Local Government Minister Rodney Hide, after she said cities should be designed after taking into account the wishes of all groups in the community.

The Act MP's political opponents have accused him of forging ahead with plans to restructure Auckland without consulting its inhabitants.

She said she had not.

She called on mayors to use their spending power to "push science in the right direction" by buying cleaner products such as solar technology.

DR ANNA TIBAIJUKA

* Daughter of Tanzanian banana and coffee farmers.
* Studied at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
* A member of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa.
* First African woman elected as a UN Under-Secretary-General.
* Honorary doctorates, including from McGill in Canada and University College London.