Week 12: Exercise

1) To what extent are you seeing low-carbon development initiatives taking place in your cities? Please share any innovative cases with us from your cities. 

Currently, there are not so much low-carbon development initiatives taking place in Ho Chi Minh city. I can name so far just few initiatives such as:

- There is national law on energy efficiency and conservation (2010).
- Also at national level, Vietnam has developed Vietnam Green Growth Strategy, which has been approved in September 2012 (more information in the attached file).
- Recently, the vice-chairman of Ho Chi Minh city's People's Committee has approved to pilot using energy efficient lighting for one street in Phu Nhuan district.
-  Green pavements in central business district of Ho Chi Minh city.
- City has plans for developing of 8 BRT lines.

2) Do you feel that any of the Latin American initiatives shared this week might be successfully adapted for implementation in your city? If so, how might you overcome any potential barriers?

I like all the Latin American initiatives shared this week, the mainstreaming of solar heating use by law in Belo Horizonte, the turning waste-to-energy landfills and the BRT in Bogota. In my opinion, they all should and can be successfully adapted for implementation in Ho Chi Minh city. Potential barriers would mostly be public awareness and, perhaps financial sources for BRT. It is because in HCMC, people are not so interested in public transport because of bad public transport service and the convenience of using individual motorbikes. I think Ho Chi Minh city should improve service quality of public transport system and should have some communications through different channels to encourage people to use public transport.

3) Do you think that the business model suggested by Enrique Rebolledo in the waste-to-energy brief might encourage actors in your city to employ low-carbon technologies?

Yes, I think so too.

• Vietnam and Green Growth:
  http://lowemissionsasia.org/sites/default/files/pdf_file/DSDS_Green%20Growth%20Session_Vietnam_FINAL.pdf

• HCMC - low carbon policy and challenges:
  http://www.iges.or.jp/en/cdm/pdf/regional/20130305/7_HCMcity.pdf

Week 12: Low-Carbon Development Strategies

This week we will be looking at some low-carbon development strategies in cities across our nations. When we speak of low-carbon development, we are speaking of long-term development initiatives that take climate change considerations into account and actively seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Low-carbon development is attractive to a broad array of stakeholders due to the ability of this type of infrastructure to offer favourable investment opportunities, to contribution to emissions reductions, and to improve quality of life in a sustainable way.

In cities low-carbon development can come in many forms, although arguably the most common initiatives are related to transportation, energy production/efficiency and waste disposal. This week we would like to share some examples with you from Latin American cities related to these three areas, but we would like to encourage you to share experiences from your cities that may go beyond these.

We would like to share with you the cases of Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit System, Belo Horizonte’s Solar Energy legislation and Monterrey’s waste-to-energy programme:

- The famous BRT system in Bogotá, Colombia, has proved to set a standard for other such systems in Latin America and beyond, reducing energy consumption, emissions and travel time for commuters.

- In order to address rising emissions from buildings ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) began the PoliCS programme to improve the sustainability of buildings, focusing on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies: one such initiative was for the employment of solar energy in Belo Horizone, Brazil, and legislation to enable this.
- In Monterrey, Mexico the first waste-to-energy project in Latin America was successfully implemented to turn waste into electricity savings. The waste-to-energy landfill technology has led to a reduction in municipal waste problems and emissions, while simultaneously creating electricity that is used to power public lighting and the subway system.

This week Enrique Rebolledo, a low-carbon expert from Mexico, and author of the brief on Monterrey’s waste-to-energy landfill, will be joining us in the discussion about low-carbon development strategies. Enrique specialises in showing the profitability potential of low-carbon, energy saving, infrastructure.

We would like to encourage you to engage with one another in a discussion around the following questions:

1) To what extent are you seeing low-carbon development initiatives taking place in your cities? Please share any innovative cases with us from your cities.

2) Do you feel that any of the Latin American initiatives shared this week might be successfully adapted for implementation in your city? If so, how might you overcome any potential barriers?

3) Do you think that the business model suggested by Enrique Rebolledo in the waste-to-energy brief might encourage actors in your city to employ low-carbon technologies?

Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities

Related materials:

Belo Horizone's Solar Legislation

Bogotá's Bus Rapid Transit System

Monterrey's Waste-to-Energy Project

Week 11: Exercise

1) Are you aware of actions in your city that are improving the climate resilience of buildings? If so, how do you think that such actions might be successfully adapted to other urban realities?

I'm not aware of actions in Ho Chi Minh city such as building codes for improving the climate resilience of buildings. There are only some training/instructions on how to stabilise housing structure for storm resilience for poor communities in Can Gio coastal district. However, there is a German funded research on climate-adapted housing and energy efficient building within the Megacity HCMC research project. And I would like to share here the result of this research, which is a useful Handbook for Green Housing. Although it is for Ho Chi Minh city but I think many of the directions can also be applied elsewhere.

2) Do you think that the approaches employed in the Latin American case studies might be adapted to your function in informal settlements in your cities?

Yes, I do think that the approaches employed in the Latin American case studies can and even should be adapted in informal settlements in Ho Chi Minh cities.

The Handbook for Green Housing

 [download english version]

 [download vietnamese version]

• http://www.cangio.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/tintuc/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?Source=/tintuc&Category=&ItemID=1714&Mode=1 

Week 11: Climate Resilient Buildings and Urban Upgrading

This week we will be looking at how improvements in building standards can increase urban climate resilience. Last week we looked at infrastructure in general, and this week, as promised we will focus in on buildings in particular. There a various measures that might be taken to make buildings more sustainable: some actions involve upgrading existing structures to make them more adaptive to climate change or to help them to mitigate greenhouse gases (GHGs); other actions include innovative designs for new ‘green’ buildings that use natural resources (such as energy) more efficiently and reduce harmful emissions.

So far in this Learning Alliance we have largely focused on how the changing climate affects vulnerable communities, and as such we have two Latin American case studies for you that explore urban upgrading in informal settlements. We are nonetheless very interested to hear about any actions in your cities that relate to increasing resilience in the built environment – be that through new building codes, green roofs, sustainable building designs, urban upgrading programmes, or any others.

Our first case this week is an interview with Mariana Estevão, the founder of an NGO that runs a project to offer architectural and engineering expertise, along with a scheme to purchase building material to families living in a slum in in the city of Niteroi, Brazil. This grassroots project helps families to upgrade housing in order to reduce health risks; such actions include raising the height of roofs to enable more ventilation and thus reduce temperatures, sealing walls so as to reduce humidity and improving roofing so as to reduce leakages. In order to purchase building supplies inhabitants exchange used TetraPak cartons for credits, thus reducing waste and raising the profile of recycling.

The second case is from the informal settlement known as Villa Tranquila, in Argentina. The upgrading programme in this community was distinctly participative, involving multiple-stakeholders throughout the whole process. The upgrading of this community improved access to infrastructure, improved the standard of houses in some sectors and built new houses in others. Aside from the impacts on the built environment, this top-down, government-backed initiative improved complicated social relations within what was a once divided and fearful community.

This week we would like to invite you to view the video interview with Mariana Estevão and read the case of Villa Tranquila and engage with one another in a dialogue around the following questions:

1) Are you aware of actions in your city that are improving the climate resilience of buildings? If so, how do you think that such actions might be successfully adapted to other urban realities?

2) Do you think that the approaches employed in the Latin American case studies might be adapted to your function in informal settlements in your cities?

If you have any questions or would like any more information about either of these two cases we would be happy to pass on your enquiries to our Latin American experts.

Please log in to access this discussion's related materials and to add a contribution http://ella.practicalaction.org/learning-alliances-6

Best wishes,

Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities

Related materials:

Urban Upgrading Villa Tranquila

Interview with Mariana Estevão

Transcript for Interview with Mariana Estevão

Green Roofing

Week 10: Exercise

1.  What infrastructural improvements do you think are necessary in your city in order to improve climate resilience of vulnerable communities?

Ho Chi Minh city has many problems of traffic, pollution, flooding, overload infrastructure, lack of green and public spaces, bad planning pose great vulnerability to climate change. Buildings are mostly for using air-conditioner, which are not energy-efficient and at the same time often without good ventilation. Therefore, in my opinion, Ho Chi Minh city need to integrate climate change into its development, through:

- Better public transportation system, well-organized, diverse and efficient is needed for crowded HCMC. Public transportation should be more comfortable as the quality of service should be improved so that it can be more attractive and become priority in people’s choice, beside affordability.

- Walkability and cyclability should be integrated into public transportation system. Pedestrians and cyclists should be encouraged through incentive policies and programmes. On the other hand, limitation of cars and motorbikes, particularly in central downtown can help saving energy, improving environment and community sense with safer traffic, better public interaction and less pollution.

- Cleaner, renewable energies and their supporting infrastructure should be taken into consideration in the long term development of the city. Some examples can be the model of solar street lighting, solar-panel on roof of big buildings, cleaner fuels for public transportation…

- Urban designs such as green pavement, waterparks can facilitate rainwater infiltration to replenish groundwater and mitigate urban flood.

- Farm lands and green spaces should be preserved for microclimate regulation, water retention, urban biodiversity as well as food security and other beneficial ecosystem services.

- It is necessary for HCMC to start as soon as possible integrated waste management instead of current landfilling method otherwise later HCMC will inevitably face the waste crisis.

2. How is existing infrastructure being managed in the face of climate challenges?

As I mentioned, the existing infrastructure pertains many risks in the face of climate change and a lot of things need to be improved.

3. How might it be possible to encourage ‘no-regrets’ investments in infrastructure in your city? 

It is possible with strong political will and an aware public.

Week 10: Improving Infrastructure for Climate Resilience

This week we start Module 3, which will focus on improving resilience in the built environment. We shall kick off the module with a discussion about infrastructure. Infrastructure is affected by extreme events, by slow-onset climate change, and city dwellers without access to infrastructure may become further marginalised as climate challenges increase. Please read this week's post and engage in an interactive discussion with fellow participants.

This week, we will be looking at the impacts of infrastructure on urban climate vulnerability and risk. Infrastructure plays a vital economic and social role in cities. Infrastructure in the broad sense is what allows people access to water, sanitation, electricity, communication, transportation and other services. This infrastructure is important for economic development because sections of cities cease to function, and livelihoods are jeopardised, when these services are unavailable; from the social perspective access to these services are fundamental to improving quality of life. We have attached a very interested, very detailed document entitled Paving the Way for Climate Resilient Infrastructure, which provides in depth analysis of the importance of infrastructure for climate resilience.

Climate change poses a series of challenges to infrastructure, both direct and indirect. There are several ways in which cities can invest in infrastructure, these include:
- Investing in upgrading inefficient infrastructure, adapting it to cope with potential climate challenges
- Building specific infrastructure to protect from potential climate challenges
- Including climate considerations when investing in any kind of infrastructure: so called ‘no-regrets’ investments
- Building climate-resilient, low-carbon, infrastructure to both respond to potential threats, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve quality of life at the same time

Later on in Module 3 we will look specifically at low-carbon development strategies in cities, specifically focusing on waste disposal and transportation. This week we would like to focus on how improvements in infrastructure are necessary as city populations continue to grow and put increasing pressure on existing services, and how slow-onset climate change exacerbates bottlenecks (such as inefficient provisions for water and sanitation). Additionally we would like to think about how infrastructure is affected by extreme climatic events. When extreme events hit, infrastructure can be severely damaged leading to, among other things, loss of lives, required investment in recuperation operations and loss of productivity. We would like to invite you to view the short UNEP document entitled Municipalities Adapting to Climate Change, to get an overview of the effects of climate change on infrastructure and some brief Latin American solutions.

Due to the sheer enormity of this week’s theme, for the Latin American case studies, we have focused on water and waste-water treatment and management strategies. We would like to invite you to read the news article about how water management is strong in Latin America, but how water access and waste-water treatment remains weak. This week we have an Interview with Fernando Rodrígez from Bajo Carbono, Mexico, talking about good, low-carbon, waste-water treatment practices from the region and the importance of showing the profitability of such systems. As we have seen already in the Learning Alliance, one of the major barriers to improving climate resilience is how to engage and acquire commitment from local governments– Fernando's experience points to the need to direct the attention of local governments to the profitability of infrastructure upgrades and investments.

Finally, our interview with Rossana Poblet of Peru details the distinct climate change and water stresses that exist within the megacity of Lima, as well as the concerted efforts taken to address these challenges in the city by using an integrated approach to water and wastewater infrastructural management.

This week we would like to invite you to take part in an interactive discussion with one another around the following themes:

1) What infrastructural improvements do you think are necessary in your city in order to improve climate resilience of vulnerable communities?
2) How is existing infrastructure being managed in the face of climate challenges?
3) How might it be possible to encourage ‘no-regrets’ investments in infrastructure in your city? 

Related materials:

Water Management in Latin America

Municipalities Adapting to Climate Change

Paving the Way for Climate Resilient Infrastructure

Fernando Rodríguez Interview

Rossana Poblet Interview

Paving the Way for Climate Resilient Infrastructure by Daisy

Week 9: Exercise

Thank you ELLA and all for the knowledge and experience shared! They would be useful for me as I'm also working with community participation approach in our project for adaptation to climate change in the coastal areas. I would like to share here one example from the current work that we are doing here (GIZ Vietnam) in Soc Trang Province in Vietnam. Our GIZ project has supported the provincial government of Soc Trang to implement coastal protection measures including: afforestation, rehabilitation, conservation and management of mangrove forests using co-management methods; stabilisation of banks and rehabilitation of mudflats by building protective structures or breakwaters. What I would like to emphasize here is the method of mangrove co-mangement, which is an example of community-based DRR and more. 

 "Co-management in a natural resource context is a partnership arrangement in which a resource user group gets the right to use natural resources on state owned land (a defined area) and the responsibility to sustainably manage the resources (including protection). Resource users and local authorities jointly negotiate an agreement on who can do what where, when, how and how much in a particular area of resources which is then implemented and monitored primarily by the resource users themselves. The aim is to provide local communities with benefits through legal and secured access to natural resources in protection forests and at the same time to ensure sustainable use of the resources and effective protection of the mangrove forests." 

Effectively managed and protected mangrove forests protect communities from waves, erosion, storm and flooding and provide food, shelter and nursery ground for aquatic species. Moreover, further benefits of mangrove co-management are livelihood improvement, involvement of resource users in resource management decision-making, reduced workload for authorities and benefit sharing as part of an Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) approach. More information on mangrove co-management can be seen on our project website below.

• http://czm-soctrang.org.vn/en/home.aspx

• http://www.iucn.org/fr/nouvelles_homepage/nouvelles_par_date/?10583/Disaster-Risk-Reduction-through-school-education-IUCN-and-GIZ-work-together-to-assist-disaster-prone-communities-in-Southern-Bangladesh
• http://www.undp.org.mz/en/Newsroom/News/Latest-News2/Innovative-approaches-for-natural-disaster-risk-reduction-in-Vietnam-Mozambican-delegation-brings-home-best-practices
• Vietnam
• http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/EAP/vietnam-disaster/
• http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/EAP/vietnam-disaster-2/

Comments

Samuel Adoboe, Ghana

Posted April 02 at 11:26 (GMT-6)

Wonderful approach of Co-management plus responsibility to manage sustainably! thank you for sharing this with the group. I would like to find out what the outcomes have been so far and what is the duration of the partnership agreements? 

Jyotiraj Patra, India

Posted April 02 at 19:52 (GMT-6)

Dear Thuy,
This is indeed an innovative approach to build disaster resilience through natural resource management. I shared a similar initiative being implemented around the Bhitarkanika Mangroves, a Ramsar Site in the coastal state of Odihsa, at the interface of mangrove conservation, disaster risk reduction and livelihood opportunities. One of the major challenge is with regard to identifying and ensuring the involvement and ownership of ‘local resource users’. In recent times coastal Odisha has witnessed large-scale conversion of mangroves and coastal vegetation for commercial shrimp farming and there have been massive financial investments by seafood exporters and other business groups all of who are ‘outsiders’. Community-based initiatives in such situations are often heavily influenced and impacted by these actors who perceive community-management and ownership as a potential threat to their business operations. Wondering if you came across such situations in the mangrove co-management project in the Soc Trang Province.

Thuy Duong Pham, Viet Nam (Vietnam)

Posted April 03 at 18:29 (GMT-6)

Thank you all for your comments!

Dear Samuel, about the outcomes so far, we had the model developed first in Au Tho B village in Vinh Chau. Due to the success of mangrove co-management in Au Tho B village, since the end of 2011 the co-management model is being expanded to two more coastal villages. More information on the co-management in the pilot village is on the file attached here.

Attachments:

http://czm-soctrang.org.vn/Publications/EN/Docs/Co-Management%20Au%20Tho%20B%202010%20EN.pdf

About the duration of the partnership agreement, for my understanding, it is open-ended.

Dear Jyotiraj, we also have some problems with outsiders. But here in Soc Trang, mostly the outsiders are also the poor people who want to catch the aquatic resources (not the rich business groups). Yes, i know it is hard...