Creating healthy and sustainable cities : What gets measured, gets done [Commentary]

[Extract] Since the first Lancet Series on urban design, transport, and health (Series 1) was published in 2016, the urgency to make the transition to healthy and sustainable cities worldwide has intensified. That year, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals1 for promoting prosperity while protecting the planet and ensuring equity came into force. WHO also released its Shanghai Declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At WHO Global Conference on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in 2017, heads of states reiterated their commitment to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030. In 2018, WHO published the Global Action Plan for Physical Activity, which featured recommendations to create active environments. Cobenefits of integrated city planning policies for individual and planetary health are now recognised globally, and scientific evidence about rapidly changing earth systems and increasingly extreme weather has reinforced the urgency to transition to net-zero-emission cities.2