Download Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable Urban 2-3 December 2014

Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable Urban
Development In Asia and the Pacific
Meeting room F, UNCC, Bangkok
2-3 December 2014
Introduction and Overview
Donovan Storey
Chief, Sustainable Urban Development, Environment & Development Division
Objectives of the Expert Group Meeting
1. Identify and discuss emerging issues related to
sustainable urban development in Asia and the
Pacific.
2. Identify and discuss priority issues for the region in
relation to the post-2015 Development Agenda and
Habitat III, which could be discussed at APUF-6.
3. Engage key regional partners in the organization of
APUF-6.
Key Trends and Challenges
Is there an Asia-Pacific urban storyline – and
what is it?
Some numbers & context:
An estimated 120,000 people arrive in AsiaPacific’s cities every day
The region will pass the 50% threshold in
2018
Cities are driving the region’s economy,
producing around 80 % of GDP
But cities are the source of 70% of GHGs.
They are driving climate change
6.0
5.0
Persistent informality: housing, work,
tenure
64%
4.0
3.0
48%
urban
32%
rural
2.0
1.0
An imposing house of cards? A-P cities
disproportionately exposed to disasters
and climate change
0.0
1990
2014
2050
Growth in rural and Urban Areas Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects, 2014 Revision
Exceptions, qualifications…
Some cities, in particular in Central and North-East Asia are not
growing at all. Some are even shrinking – though for different
reasons
Megacities are still exceptions: most growth is predicted to occur in
small and medium sized cities – most urbanites live in cities of less
than one million
Defining what is urban and rural is increasingly blurred. We are
seeing an urbanization of space beyond administrative boundaries
Extreme poverty in the region is declining overall, but income
inequality is increasing as is evidence of urban poverty relative to
rural
The dominance of small and medium-sized cities:
Urbanization in the
Asia-Pacific
sub-regions:
Some issues for consideration
Economic growth, employment, informality and inequality
The region has experienced very strong economic growth that has
lifted millions out of poverty: cities are at the heart of this.
But this growth has primarily been through low cost competition
with limited reinvestment (capital, labour etc)
Have limits been reached? Has all low hanging fruit been picked?
The region’s cities are some of the world’s most divided. The IS
remains essential. Repositioning/reinvestment is difficult and costly
Affordability is at crisis levels. There is a severe lack of housing, land
and in many cases infrastructure. Where will the finance come from?
Social change, complexity and expectation
Asia’s middle class is booming: it will reach over 3 billion by 2050
(from 595 million in 1990). It is a global success story.
It is mostly urban, in demand of resources, energy, home ownership,
mobility and ... this cannot be met, at least sustainably
The private sector fills many needs. The role/relationship of
government is weakening as provider
Cities of wealth cannot hide that the region’s slum population is the
largest in the world, that an employment crisis exists or that the vast
majority of urban people have very vulnerable livelihoods
An unsustainable urban present – and future?
Linear/transition models of urban environments no longer hold.
Impacts of extreme poverty, emerging consumer classes & extreme
wealth take place simultaneously
City forms in Asia-Pacific are often spatially inefficient & fragmented
resulting in exaggerated resource footprints
Delinking resource degradation & economic growth: the necessity of
innovation and nexus thinking & action
Some of the fastest growing and most connected are the least
resilient: climate change is recasting urban vulnerabilities
 1 billion new consumers in emerging market cities by 2025

Annual consumption in emerging cities is set to rise by $10
Image
trillion by 2050
Governance, urban planning and institutional renewal
Cities are changing – but are our institutions?
New planning concepts, eGovernance, new institutions & more
innovation needed to manage cities & reverse disengagement but were are they?
Governance gaps are horizontal and vertical. There is a powersharing gap between local and central government,
financing/capacity gaps, district egoism at local and so on
‘If Mayors Ran The World’ – would our problems be over?
What can & should be ‘new’ about the new urban agenda in Asia
and the Pacific?
Our challenge is to stop building and governing cities as if
it were the 19th or the 20th century – so we can start
creating cities now for future generations
Tell Me, by John Laan
Tell me about the town
The streets and the cars
The wharves and the buildings
And why are they there.
Tell me about the shops
Who the shopkeepers are
The goods they sell
And why they are so expensive.
Tell me about the town people
How they dress
The way they speak, their behaviour
And why they never return.
Tell me about the cinemas
Who owns the pictures
How much do you pay
And why are some not suitable for
children.
Tell me about the tourists
Where they come from
Who they are
And why they carry cameras.
Finally tell me if you will marry me
And take me to town with you.
The End
Thanks for listening