Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that in the last nine years the total expenditure on Urban schemes has increased to 18 lakh crore rupees from one lakh 57 thousand crore rupees during 2004-2014. Addressing the valedictory session of the two-day Urban 20 Summit, Mr Puri said, that the challenges of global development have to be addressed primarily through the cities. He said, focusing on cities is important as 65 percent of the world population lives in urban areas and contributes 75 percent of GDP.
 
Speaking on the occasion G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said, if the world has to accelerate the pace of growth, then cities have to be in the forefront. He said, growth, development, upliftment of people from the poverty line, and climate action are directly co-related to cities. Mr Kant said, the U20 has taken a very progressive and forward-looking approach to city development and focussed on sustainable growth of cities.
 
The two-day Urban 20 summit concluded with the handover of U20 communique to G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. More than 650 delegates from more than 90 cities attended the summit held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The U20 Communiqué is an action-oriented collaboratively prepared document that brings to the fore the role that cities can play in taking forward the G20 agenda. U20 communique has been endorsed by 105 cites.
 
The U20 Communique has recommended six priority areas including environmentally responsible behaviours, ensuring water security, accelerating climate finance, and catalysing the digital urban future. The Communique has called upon G20 countries for enabling cities to ensure a resilient and inclusive urban future. It has recommended establishing a loss and damage fund directly accessible by cities to promote climate justice and also to create an enabling environment for the flow of climate finance to cities. The U20 communique will be taken into consideration during G-20 Summit held in September this year.