A major blueprint for sustainable housing has been unveiled by the UN in a bid to help countries address urgent economic, social and environmental issues.

The document, known as the Charter on Sustainable Housing, is the result of more than six years of talks between the UN’s Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and its 56 member states.

It aims to address many challenges, such as what UNECE calls the “unsustainable” amount that people spend on housing, currently estimated at more than 40 per cent of earnings.

The document will used at Habitat III, the global housing and sustainable development conference in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016, as UNECE’s Paola Deda explains to Daniel Johnson.

Duration: 3’37”