Download Mainstreaming Climate Change into Urban Policies: urban transformation, climate change and governance

Mainstreaming Climate Change into Urban
Policies: urban transformation, climate change
and governance
Donovan Storey
Sustainable Urban Development Section
Mainstreaming Climate Change into National Urban Policies
EGM, UNCC, Bangkok
17-18 March 2015
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Why Focus on Cities?
 In 2014, 2.07 billion people
lived in urban areas in Asia
Pacific, representing 53 per
cent of the world’s urban
population
 Since 2000 an astonishing
increase of 630 million people
in the ESCAP region
 Between 1980 and 2010 AsiaPacific cities grew by 1 billion
people
 A further 1 billion will be
added in next 25 years
 2050: 3.2 billion+/ 64% of
region will live in cities
2
The Urban Context
 Cities are consumers of regional
resources; are sources of waste;
and are vulnerable due to this
unsustainable pattern
 Continued degradation of
ecosystem services through an
exploitation model
 Significant and growing
contribution to GHG
 Sea-level rise, and extreme
events (storms, floods,
droughts) interact with human
impacts, such as degraded and
altered biophysical
environments
 Complex and distinctly urban
patterns of risk and impact, to
which cities, their populations &
governments must respond
 Climate vulnerability and climate
change threatens to reverse
development gains
 Significant overlap between climate
change vulnerability and urban
poverty
 Need for integration of poverty
reduction with climate change
intervention, in order not to
exacerbate vulnerability
 This is not a trade-off
 Holistic, flexible and participatory
approaches to urban climate
resilience can be an effective tool to
foster inclusive and sustainable
development and good
governance.
The Urban Context
“Our struggle for global sustainability will be won or
lost in cities” (Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General)
Vulnerability Defined
IPCC defines
vulnerability as
consisting of 3 main
components:
• Exposure
• Sensitivity
• Adaptive Capacity
Vulnerability is not
a static state, but
changes over time
Resilience Defined
The capacity of cities
(individuals, communities,
institutions, businesses and
systems) to survive, adapt, and
thrive in the face of stress and
shocks, and even transform
when conditions require it.
Urban climate resilience can be understood as both an
ONGOING PROCESS and NORMATIVE GOAL
Attributes of resilient cities
Five key elements of resilient cities:
• Awareness – knowing your strengths and
assets, liabilities and vulnerabilities, threats
and risks
• Diversity – includes the notion of
redundancy, alternatives and back-ups, and
a range of capabilities
• Self-Regulating – withstanding disruption
• Integrated – collaborative and concerted
efforts
• Adaptive – capacity to adjust to changing
circumstances
Quick Guide for Policy Makers
Framing Pro-poor, Urban Climate Resilience
Principles of pro-poor urban climate
resilience: The Do’s and the Don’ts
AVOIDING MALADAPTATION
• Don’t focus on a narrow or isolated outcome
• Don’t make your planning unnecessarily rigid and without
taking account of risk
• Don’t sideline or disregard those who will be most
affected
 Focus on the whole urban system
 Embrace flexibility
 Enable participation and promote partnerships
Selected Issue-based Entry Points
Basic services and infrastructure
Housing
Land-use planning and tenure security
Livelihoods
Health
Food security, urban agriculture and
ecosystems
 Disaster risk Management
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 What are the
challenges?
 Why is climate change
making the situation
worse?
 How can we improve
resilience?
Closing the governance loop urban climate
resilience
While much can be achieved through sector-based approaches, more
concerted attention needs to be paid to the specific benefits of
comprehensive city-wide approaches
 Towards comprehensive planning and governance
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Vertical coordination
Horizontal collaboration
Lesson learning
Whole-of-system thinking
 Developing a citywide resilience strategy
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Identifying climate vulnerability
Developing and sustaining multi-stakeholder partnerships
Promoting awareness and knowledge sharing
Creating a supportive and empowering governance framework
Strengthening the capacity of urban stakeholders
Closing the governance gaps
 Limited local and national
capacities to address climate
change challenges, aggravated by
limited documentation and
dissemination of good practices
and regional support;
 Limited funding for climate
change responses, particularly at
the local level;
 Lack of political will since climate
change is still seen as a threat
well beyond the electoral cycle;
and
 National urban policy and legal
frameworks that do not
anticipate and manage rapid
urban growth and climate
change.
How to bridges the gaps?
Finance & Mainstreaming
Across the world, the burden of adapting to climate change will be
felt most strongly in urban areas. According to one estimate by the
World Bank, as much as 80 per cent of global adaptation costs will be
borne in urban areas
 Finding the funds
 A new approach to financing urban
adaptation
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Local communities
International climate finance
Overseas Development Assistance
National governments
Urban authorities
City-to-city partnerships
 Finance as yardstick
Six opportunities for funding urban
resilience/adaptation
 Focus on what is most cost
effective
 Developing a clear business case
 Mainstream adaptation into
existing programmes to enhance
co-benefits on investment
 Pool resources (finance, human…)
 Linking adaptation to pro-poor
outcomes in other areas
 Encourage communities to
contribute to the process
Regional opportunities for this project
 To be able to develop effective examples of
mainstreaming which build upon/develop
successful and enduring partnerships
 Establish norms with regard to good examples –
with regional lessons – especially of successful
multilevel governance
 To demonstrate what is possible in the AsiaPacific region, in the context of rapid urban
growth, sustainable development and new
development paradigms
THANK YOU
& have a successful meeting!
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