Tuesday 23 April 2013

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



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