The challenges facing cities, in an age of climate change and technological innovation, will be highlighted at the World Urban Forum, held in Abu Dhabi between February 8 and 13.

Before he left for the UN’s annual conference on the urban environment, Haoliang Xu, Director of the UN Development Programme’s Department of Policy and Programme Support, sat down with Matt Wells from UN News.

Mr. Xu revealed that there is a growing trend of city leaders looking to the UN to help solve an increasingly complex set of problems.