Week 2: City Level Climate Change Plans and Policies

EXCHANGE AND LEARNING : Framework for addressing climate threats to cities

This week we will be looking at centralised city-level climate change plans and policies. In Latin America we are seeing more and more cities developing comprehensive city-level climate change strategies that are backed up with policies and supported by governmental institutions. We are interested to see whether this is a trend across the global south, and whether such plans are genuinely improving climate resilience in cities. We would like to begin the discussion by sharing cases from the capital cities of Mexico and Ecuador. Mexico City implemented it’s Climate Action Program in 2008 [please see Executive Summary], and in 2012 published a report detailing emissions reductions and achievements from the first four years. The city of Quito developed it’s Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in 2009, which used a holistic inclusive approach and is considered a benchmark in terms of city level climate change planning [please see the MIT news article].

In order to provide direct insights on the cases of Quito and Mexico City we carried out interviews with two fundamental actors in the development and implementation of these plans. We are very grateful to Carolina Zambrano-Barragán from the city of Quito, and Martha Delgado from Mexico City for taking the time to share their experiences with us. Carolina Zambrano-Barragán was the Metropolitan Director of Environmental Policy and Planning for the City of Quito and previously served as Undersecretary of Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment of Ecuador. Martha Delgado was the Minister of Environment for Mexico City during the administration of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard (2006-2012), where they developed ambitious environmental policies like the Green Plan of Mexico City and the Climate Action Program. We would like to invite you to read these interviews and engage in the following discussion:

1) Does your city have a government mandated climate change strategy?

If yes, how was it developed (who was involved) and how successful is it in achieving its mandate?

If no, what do you perceive to be the barriers for developing one?

2) To what extent do your city governments invest in improving climate resilience?

3) Can cities become resilient to climate change without centralised support?

Should you have any questions for either of our experts this week, please let us know and we will be happy to contact them. We would like to encourage you once again to please engage in the discussion and analyse the experiences of other participants, building upon each others’ contributions. For participants that do have city plans and policies, please identify the enabling factors so that other participants may learn from your examples. Let’s work together!

THIS WEEK'S KEY MATERIALS

 Executive Summary of Mexico City Climate Action Program

 MIT Article on Quito and City Level Climate Plans in the Global South

PowerPoint Summary of Quito and Mexico City Climate Change Plans

Week 2 Video Transcript

Interview with Carolina Zambrano - Quito

Interview with Martha Delgado - Mexico City

ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities: Mexico City and Quito Climate Change Plans from ELLA Programme

Interview with Martha 

Interview with Carolina 

Week 1: Summary and Conclusion of Discussion on Climate Resilience in Your Cities

Thank you all for your contributions and interactions during this introductory phase of the Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities. It was great to see many of you already asking each other questions and sharing experiences from your regions! This is what the Learning Alliance is about, and it is your active participation and interaction with others that will enrich the learning experience. I will give a brief summary of the discussion on how the climate is affecting your cities and how they are responding.

The vast majority of posts came from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia – the global south. We could see that climatic events are affecting cities across our regions in very similar ways; the effects of climate variability in terms of aggravating existing problems were common across regions; and the major challenges to be overcome when tackling climate challenges were indeed similar. Although we only touched upon the idea of planning to overcome climatic challenges at the city level, we can already see that there are varied approaches, and we look forward to hearing more about these throughout the course of the Learning Alliance.

A very important point to pick up on, which recurred many times throughout the posts was that we cannot attribute all existing problems experienced as a result of natural events to climate change. Some participants were concerned with the use of the term ‘climate change’. I would not want this distinction to impede our discussions and would like to suggest that we consider strategies to improve resilience in cities on account of climate variability, which will worsen with time. Many participants directly pointed to the idea that the denial of climate change is a major barrier to development in cities. Thinking that climate change is something that will happen in future, and thus waiting to act rather than taking proactive measures to reduce risks and existing climate aggravated problems now. Many participants theorised that a holistic approach to climate change would be the most effective means of achieving change – integrating climate considerations into all plans, policies and development actions at the city level.

One of the main barriers to change that was noted across all regions was the relative inaction of city governments. Many participants explained research projects and promising strategies and plans that have alas not yet come to fruition. It seems that in many cities it is not the lack of planning on how to address climate challenges that is leaving cities vulnerable, but it is the putting of these plans into action that proves to be difficult. Some point out that the reason for this is the lack of conviction in long-term investments, due to the nature of national and local politics. In many countries climate change is not a priority due to the myriad of existing development needs. We will be looking at city level plans and policies in the first week of Module 1.

The level of awareness and understanding about climate risks and climate change realities was mentioned time and time again – for all levels of society. Many participants noted that awareness among communities is a key priority, and that city dwellers should be educated about climate threats and included in planning decisions. We did see that some programmes, mainly led by civil society groups, are working on exactly this issue across our regions.

Another recurring commentary was about the importance of using multi-stakeholder groups when planning for and addressing climate challenges. Many participants suggested that players from the government, civil society, the private sector, academia and the community, should work together to identify risks, formulate plans and put them into action. Few successful practical examples were given, but this week’s discussion was not focused on that. In module 2 we will look at the involvement institutions and the community.

In terms of which climatic changes have been seen in cities across our regions, the main cause of problems seem to be heavy rainfall and resultant flooding. Heavy rainfall coupled with a variety of aggravators has been wreaking havoc in cities around the world:

- Many cities across our nations are located on the coastline or on riverbanks

- Poor drainage systems worsen flood damage

- Poor quality infrastructure is easily damaged by heaving rain causing a variety of knock on problems 

- Lack of building codes for housing

- High level of rural-urban migration

- Unplanned cities see urban dwellers settling in high risk areas: on riverbanks, hillsides, and other unstable grounds

Indeed many participants attributed the lack of land-use planning as one of the main challenges that cities need to overcome in order to become more resilient to climate change. We will be looking at land-use planning during the course of Module 1.

Many participants also spoke about the impact of rising temperatures, decreased rainfall and intense droughts. Some spoke about droughts in rural areas that have the knock-on effect of causing food security issues in cities. Droughts in cities also raise concerns over access to drinking water. We heard about some civil society action to drill boreholes, but there was an increasing concern over the lowering of water tables.

The three problems that were most often citied by participants as being aggravated by both slow-onset and extreme weather events were poor water access, poor waste management and poor sanitation, leading to a host of health issues (water-borne and vector-borne). Many actions were seen across all regions that are attempting to address these issues. In Module 3, when we look at ways to improve resilience in the built environment we will delve more deeply into these issues, and uncover solutions from across our regions. 

We welcome any comments on this brief summary, and will shortly be uploading a database that systematises responses to this introductory discussion.

All the best from Rio de Janeiro,

Charlotte and the ELLA team

Green Cities, Cities and Climate Change, Inclusive Cities

Green Cities by Asian Development Bank

Green Cities

Date:	November 2012
Type:	Books
Subject:	Environment; Urban development
Series:	Urban Development Series
ISBN:	978-92-9092-896-6 (print), 978-92-9092-897-3 (web)

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http://www.adb.org/publications/green-cities 

Description

Asia's cities have been the drivers of the economy and have lifted millions out of poverty. However, the environmental consequences of this rapid development are apparent, and the citizens of Asia’s urban areas are increasingly insistent that something should be done. And there is an investment deficit in Asian cities’ infrastructure spending, mostly in environmental infrastructure, of some $100 billion per annum.

ADB's Vice President for Knowledge Management and
Sustainable Development Bindu Lohani on COP18

Asian cities can be more environmentally friendly. The resources are there to achieve this. Up to 80% of gross domestic product today comes from urban areas in Asia, and its megacities are nation-sized in population and economic product. New cities, such as the innovative "eco-towns" in Japan and "eco-cities" in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), have begun to put into action a sustainable urban development model.

 ADB's Role

To support its developing member countries in more sustainable urban development, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), under its new Urban Operational Plan, will analyze the urbanization process in the context of a country’s economic development and identify the main environmental, social, and economic development issues relating to the urban sector—as well as how ADB can add value in the sector—and the proposed areas of investment focus.

ADB will endeavor to develop longer-term engagements in focus urban regions. This will provide the opportunity to develop an integrated plan based on assessments of the environmental, social, and economic priorities for these regions. The assessment process will identify the key environmental issues of a city and prioritize investments to address them in an integrated way across infrastructure sectors to achieve a Green City. ADB, together with public and private partners, will be involved in investments in water supply, waste water, solid waste, district heating/cooling, urban transport (including roads), and energy efficiency. Under ADB’s Urban Operational Plan (2012), a number of innovative financial products are proposed in support of the transition to Green Cities. These include:

• guarantees for green investments to be used by national public or private financing institutions; and
• preferential public sector lending in support of clean energy, green transport, and green buildings.

Conclusion

Currently, the notion of Green Cities exists in the real world in the form of individual experiments with Green City technologies that are more or less equally distributed across the world’s regions. This bodes well for the scaling-up of such technologies, particularly in rapidly urbanizing Asia. The fact that the region’s population densities are expected to grow substantially over the coming decades suggests that scale economies could significantly reduce the costs of transitioning to green technologies, thus incentivizing their uptake on a large scale.

Transformation of today’s cities will not occur overnight. Global-scale application of green technologies is thus likely to be an evolution rather than a revolution. But as the rapid spread of communications-based products has demonstrated, new technologies can spread very quickly, particularly when costs fall rapidly, thus enabling scale economies in production, and hence decrease in price to levels that make such products affordable on a mass scale. Furthermore, as the continuing transformation of the older industrial urban areas of Europe and the United States has demonstrated, industrial blight and dilapidated buildings can be replaced within a few decades. This suggests a similar trajectory of transition to green city status for Asia’s urban areas, once affordable green technologies come to market and consumer preferences turn toward products based on such technologies as a result of their quality, low cost, and inherent environmental benefits.

Contents

• Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Spatial Development and Technologies for Green Cities
• Urban Metabolism and the Zero-Waste City: Transforming Cities through Sustainable Design and Behavior Change
• Energy Strategy for Green Cities
• Transport for Green Cities
• Green Cities: A Water-Secure Future
• Green City Solid Waste Management
• Financing Sustainable Cities
• Smart Concepts for Greener Cities
• References
• Conclusion: Green Cities Will Become a Reality

Inclusive Cities

Date:	April 2011
Type:	Books
Country:	India; Indonesia; Philippines
Subject:	Urban development
Series:	Urban Development Series
ISBN:	978-92-9092-293-3 (print), 978-92-9092-294-0 (web)

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Description

"...by recapturing slum rehabilitation in its different forms as a core element of an inclusive urban development agenda, this book proves relevant for both Asia and other parts of the developing world facing similar challenges of improving the lives of slum dwellers..."

— Claudio Acioly Jr., Chief, Housing Policy Section, UN-HABITAT

Slums, informal settlements, and dilapidated inner-city tenements are problems that many cities in Asia and the Pacific struggle with while their economies try to modernize and develop. Their existence puts at risk not only these economies but also poor people occupying vulnerable areas that climate change and natural disasters will only make worse. Slums are being addressed in countries in Asia and the Pacific but not yet at the rate required to create livable cities. ADB’s Strategy 2020 aims for “livable cities” and will address the range of problems resulting from rapid urbanization and the limited capacity of basic service delivery associated with present and future urban growth. To accomplish the vision of livable cities, livelihood opportunities and shelter options of incremental land and housing development are important. ADB’s developing member countries will look for viable lending opportunities to finance inclusive cities.

Contents

• Foreword
• Toward Livable Cities through Inclusive Urban Redevelopment: An Introduction
• India: ADB’s Involvement in Slum Rehabilitation
• Indonesia: Neighborhood Upgrading and Shelter Sector Project—Toward Cities without Slums
• Philippines: Strategic Private Sector Partnerships for Urban Poverty Reduction in Metro Manila
• Inclusive Urban Redevelopment: Toward Livable Cities
• http://www.adb.org/publications/inclusive-cities 

Cities and Climate Change

International Financing Options for City Climate Change Interventions
An Introductory Guide

This study offers a structured overview of financial instruments available to cities to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. By doing so the assignment contributes to:

• Raising awareness in relation to climate change funding for senior local government administration officials and consultants in the field of urban development and environmental management;
• Providing practical suggestions and ideas to local governments on how to use existing financial instruments as well as generating new financial resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation;
The International Financing Options for City Climate Change Interventions-An Introductory Guide is co-financed by the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) and Policy Advise for Environment and Climate Change (PAKLIM).
To download a copy of the publication, please click the following link:
International Financing Options for City Climate Change Interventions-An Introductory Guide


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Climate Change Plans and Infrastructure in Asian Cities

Climate change is an urgent issue that affects cities and its people across the globe. Growing cities in Asia are faced with one of the biggest environmental challenges in urban development. Unstable weather patterns, immense flooding, landslides and extreme temperature changes are but some of the results of climate change that threaten socio-economic and environmental sustainability.
The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) in collaboration with the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), conducted a survey focusing on the following three main questions:
1. Is climate change given priority in policies, plans and investments of Asian cities?
2. Where does the focus lie in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation?
3. Are there already infrastructure investments made or planned in relation to climate change?
The objectives of this baseline survey were to determine:

• The status of climate change and other relevant plans for Asian cities and their focus on climate change adaptation versus mitigation
• Where demand for climate change related infrastructure projects exists, based on these plans
• The role of development agencies and other development partners in prioritizing, planning and investing in urban infrastructure
To download a copy of the report, please click on the following link: Climate Change Plans and Infrastructure in Asian Cities

• http://www.cdia.asia/knowledge-materials/cities-and-climate-change

Competitive Cities in the 21st Century: Cluster-Based Local Economic Development

Date:	October 2011
Type:	Books
Country:	Bangladesh; India; Sri Lanka
Subject:	Urban development
Series:	Urban Development Series
ISBN:	978-92-9092-430-2 (print), 978-92-9092-431-9 (web)
Price:	US$40.00 (paperback)

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Description

Economic challenges in developing Asian countries have become more complex: urban populations are growing at great cost to the environment, climate change has increased risks of natural disasters, and income gaps within and between developing countries are widening. These factors threaten the sustainable growth and development of urban areas, the drivers of Asia’s economy. A strategic approach for inclusive growth is needed. The City Cluster Economic Development approach provides a strategic framework and a set of analytical tools, which governments, businesses, and communities can use to support the inclusive and sustainable development of competitive urban economies in Asia. Said approach was developed and tested by the Asian Development Bank to improve the basis for integrated planning and development of urban regions in Asia and the Pacific. It also helps urban managers and other city stakeholders identify action plans and determine priority investment areas.

Contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Contributors of Case Study Reports for the Asian Development Bank’s RETA 6337
• City Competitivenes sand Cluster-Based Economic Development
• Factors Shaping the Spatial Agglomeration of Asian Cities
• Emerging Factors Accelerating Urban Economic Growth
• The Cluster: Theory, Analysis, and Experience in Agglomerated Asian Cities
• Building Competitive Local Economies: Approach and Analytical Steps
• Cluster-Based City Economic Development in Bangladesh
• Cluster-Based City Economic Development in India
• Cluster-Based City Economic Development in Sri Lanka
• Insights Gained from the Three Country Case Studies
• A New Paradigm of Local Economic Development for Growing Asian Cities
• References
• http://www.adb.org/publications/competitive-cities-21st-century-cluster-based-local-economic-development

Week 1: Exercise

1. How are cities in your nations being affected by the changing climate?

Hello, I'm Daisy from Vietnam, my hometown is Ho Chi Minh city but I'm working now in Soc Trang, a province in Mekong Delta. Vietnam is one of the top 5 countries predicted to be among the most affected by climate change (World Bank, 2009). As most of its population concentrated along the low land coastline, many cities in Vietnam have already been affected by sea level rise. Big cities like Ho Chi Minh city, Hanoi have experienced urban flooding, especially after heavy rains, with river floods, together with high tide and bad drainage systems, lack of storage space for water (because of high coverage of concrete sealing in the cities). In past decade, a significant rise in weather extremes such as tropical typhoons, storm surges has been observed. Further challenge related to climate change is the urban heat island effect, which is clearly noticeable in the densely built center of big cities. Another problem is salt water intrusion, which has already been observed in cities in Mekong Delta.

2. How are your cities addressing climate change challenges?

Viet Nam has committed substantial government mobilized funds to tackling climate change, with the first major national policy framework committed over $50 million coming from domestic resources, in particular to respond to the impacts of climate change, initiated by the Ministry Natural Resources and Environment in 2008. In 2012, the country launched its “National Climate Change Strategy” (NCCS), which covers a range of vulnerability and low-carbon issues.

Links:

• Vietnam Assessment Report on Climate Change (UNEP, 2009)
• Addressing climate change in Vietnam (UNDP, 2011)
• Vietnam Climate Change Country Profile (World Bank, 2011)

Week 1: Climate Resilience in Your Cities

In this first introductory week it would be very interesting for us as a community to get a snapshot of the state of climate resilience in cities across our diverse nations.

The aim of this Learning Alliance is to share practices and approaches that might be utilised by others to address climate change challenges in cities. You may be able to provide inspiration or even solutions for peers facing similar challenges that your city has already overcome; others may provide the same for you; or we may come together to work on new solutions. In order to do that, a good place to start may be with a short introduction to how cities are being affected by the changing climate, and the level of response in cities across your nation.

We have created a short video about the importance of addressing climate related challenges at the city level, and what efforts are being made in Latin America to overcome these. We would like to invite you to watch this video and answer the following questions:

1. How are cities in your nations being affected by the changing climate?

2. How are your cities addressing climate change challenges?

We welcome you to upload files that may be of interest to other participants along with your contributions. For those of you looking for more information on Latin American solutions, or a general overview of the challenges posed by climate change in cities, please take a look at the supplementary readings in the Resource Library.

Introductory Phase Materials
	VIDEO: Welcome to the Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities
	Welcome Video Transcript
	Introductory Slideshow: How the Learning Alliance will Work
	Learning Alliance Module Outline
	Guidelines for Participation
	Frequently Asked Questions
	Key Terms
Supplementary Reading:
	The United Nations Human Settlement Program: Cities and Climate Change - Global Report on Human Settlements 2011
	The Economist Intelligence Unit: Latin American Green City Index
	Building 'Equitable' Urban Resilience: The Challenge for Cities

Related materials:

 Interview: Introduction to Climate Change Considerations in Cities In Latin America

 Week1: InterviewTranscript

Introduction to Climate Change Issues in Cities Across Latin America – Interview Transcript 

Welcome to the ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities

ELLA: Climate Resilient Cities - How the Learning Alliance will Work from ELLA Programme

Welcome to our Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities. Thank you so much for joining us.

We hope that in the coming months we, as a community, will learn a lot from each other about good practices in terms of climate adaptation, disaster risk management, vulnerability reduction and climate change mitigation options in urban areas. We hope that you will use this opportunity to learn, share and set up new cross-regional collaborative partnerships.

Although we will follow a curriculum, this is not a prescriptive course, but more of a coordinated forum. We will begin each week by starting a discussion on a particular theme and sharing some Latin American case studies with you, we will invite you to share experiences and lessons from your own regions and enter into analysis and debate about key issues and approaches. We hope that each and every one of you will take something out of this Learning Alliance and will use ELLA knowledge to add value to projects, practices and policies that you are working on now, or may work on in the future.

Your active participation in discussions is key to making this interactive learning exercise a success, so we encourage everyone to share their experiences and analyse and comment upon each others’ contributions. At this initial stage, we invite you to upload your photos and fill in the profile information. This will help to get to know each other and make networking much easier.

Once again, welcome! We look forward to working with you!

http://ella.practicalaction.org/alliances/learning.php

ELLA Climate Resilient Cities 

Urban Sustainability - Visions & Public Perceptions

Finally, this is my thesis. Thank you all for your help, encouragement, comments and responses!
With gratitude,
Daisy

• https://sites.google.com/site/sustainabilityvision

Urban Sustainability - Thesis

Urban Sustainability - Presentation