Biographies

Nicholas You is a veteran urban specialist. He served as the senior policy and planning advisor to UN-Habitat and as the manager of the Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996. He is the founder and honorary chairman of the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign Steering Committee, former thought leader for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Siemens, ENGIE and the Global Cities Business Alliance. He served for several years as an adjunct to the Center for Livable Cities, Singapore. He is currently the Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, co-Chair of the Open Green City Lab in Shenzhen, and senior green finance advisor to the China City Development Foundation. He regularly advises central and local governments, technology companies and civil society organisations on urban sustainability, urban governance and urban innovation and has written and co-authored key policy papers for the U20.   More recently he has been advising cities and regional authorities on the potential contribution of the metaverse to sustainable development.