This book is about cities as engines of consumption of the world's environment. It examines these issues through the impact of the Rio Declaration and assesses the extent to which it has made a difference.

1. Cities as Consumers of the World's Environment Brendan Gleeson and Nicholas Low ; 2. The Rio Declaration and Subsequent Global Initiatives Ingemar Elander and Rolf Lidskog ; 3. A Rough Road Out of Rio: The Right-Wing Reaction in the United States Against Global Environmentalism Timothy W Luke; 4. Contradictions at the Local Scale: Local Implementation of Agenda 21 in the USA Robert W Lake ; 5. Britain: Unsustainable Cities Andrew Blowers and Stephen Young ; 6. Sustainability and Urban Policy in Germany: Retrospect and Prospect Anke Valentin and Joachim Spangenberg ; 7. Japenese Urban Policy: Challenges of the Rio Earth Summit Fukashi Utsunomiya and Toshio Hase ; China's Urban Environmental Sustainability in a Global Context Yongyuan Yin and Mark Wang ; 9. Agenda 21 and Urban India Asesh Kumar Maitra and Arvind Krishan ;10. After Rio: Environmental Policies and Urban Planning in Sweden Rolf Lidskog and Ingemar Elander ; 11. Poland: On the Way to a Market Economy Tadeusz Markowski and Helena Rouba; 12. Consuming Cities and Environmental Policy in Australia Peter Christoff and Nicholas Low ; 13. Jakarta, Indonesia; Kampug Culture or Consumer Culture? Lea Jellinek; 14. After Rio: Urban Environmental Governance? Nicolas Low, Brendan Gleeson, Ingemar Elander and Rolf Lidskog