Post Carbon Cities

Daniela Carrington

Climate change policy advisor

Energy and Environment Practice

UNDP BRC

1

The draft Fifth Assessment report of IPCC:

• urges quicker switch to low-carbon global economy;

• says delaying action on global warming will only increase the costs

and reduce the options for dealing with its worst effects;

• global warming will continue to increase unless countries shift quickly to clean energy and

cut emissions;

• computer models predict a 3°C rise over a 100 years, and they're more sure than ever "that

many changes, that are observed consistently across components of the climate system,

are significant, unusual or unprecedented on time scales of decades to many hundreds of

thousands of years.”

UNFCCC 2013: cities mitigation policies for post-2020 regime

2

Our generation is undergoing a drastic change

Rapid urbanization is clearly one key force driving that change

Some cities and their associations, seeing the slow pace toward an

international climate agreement, lobby for a more active international role

Me neither !

The future is Urban

• Half of humanity ( 3.5 billion people) – live in cities today

• By 2030, ≈ 60% of the world’s population will live in urban areas

• 95 % of urban expansion in the next decades in developing world

• The world’s cities occupy just 2% of the Earth’s land, but account for 60-80%

of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions

• Rapid urbanization is exerting pressure on fresh water supplies, sewage, the living

environment, and public health

3

“Cities can and should play a leading role in greening economies”, UNEP report

Towards a Green Economy (2011).

- Technology innovation and deployment

- (New) Green business and governance models

- New green(ing) business opportunities/ investment

Town 1950

(millions)

2010

(millions)

Mexico 3 23

Seoul 1 23

Sao Paolo 2,5 21

Mumbai(Bombay)

3 20

Jakarta 1,5 16

Cairo 2,5 15

Lagos 0,5 14

Shanghai 5,5 13

Teheran 1 12

Istanbul 1 16

Source: Davies / Le Quément (rounded figures)

Urban areas are growing in size and importance

Megacities such as Seoul and Tokyo have more inhabitants than the 150 smallest UN-member countries

Wealth and poverty

27,000 people world-wide with more than $ 500 M

5 billion people - with less than 10$ a day

Source: WSJ report on Crédit Suisse statisticsUN 2011 Report and UN-Habitat

~ 60% of urban population in Africa and 40% Southern Asia

Source: São Paulo, picture from D. Bounds blog

In 2010, a record number of Americans lived below the poverty line.

ELIZABETH KNEEBONE: There are now more poor residents living in suburbs than in major cities.

WORKING FOR THE FEW - OXFAM PAPER

• Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just

one percent of the population

• The wealth of the one percent richest people in the

world amounts to $110 trillion. That’s 65 times the total

wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population

• The bottom half of the world’s population owns the

same as the richest 85 people in the world

• In the US, the wealthiest one percent captured 95

percent of post-financial crisis growth since 2009, while

the bottom 90 percent became poorer

Human behavior

Source: Google images

Food loss and wastage (Kg/c/y)

New economy and younger generation:

From Proprietas to Usus

Less ownership (purchasing)

More access (renting & sharing)

Green city means green behavior and rethinking individual consumption.

To adapt your mobility behavior and change your lifestyle.

2 hours

Rise of the Carbon-Neutral CitiesIn the deserts of Abu Dhabi, construction is under way on a green oasis - Masdar

City, a zero-carbon, zero-waste, self-contained community meant to house 50,000

people. The $22 billion megaproject will include cutting-edge solar power and

water treatment systems, nonpolluting underground light rail.

Innovation Doesn't Have to Be Expensive

7

http://www.ge.com/innovation/masdar/index.html

A little more than a year ago, the Seattle

city council decided to make the city

carbon-neutral by 2050.

The city of Sydney is the first local

Government in Australia to be certified as

carbon neutral under the National Carbon

Offset Standard followed by the city of

Melbourne

Rizhao (China), Arendal (Norway);

Vancouver (Canada); Växjö

(Sweden), even the Vatican have

plans to become carbon neutral

Copenhagen's ambition to be carbon-neutral by 2025

• The Danish capital is moving rapidly toward a zero-carbon future, as it erects wind farms,

transforms its citywide heating systems, promotes energy efficiency, and lures more people

out of their cars and onto public transportation and bikes

• What will all this cost? Direct city investment in the 2025 Climate Plan is estimated to be

$472 million through 2025. Add private funds and total investment could hit $4.78 billion

over the same period.

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"We can see that we have to invest a lot of money to

reach the target, but we can see also that we can

create a lot of new jobs with that huge investment.

Copenhagen can be a green laboratory for

developing and testing new green solutions.“

Mayor Jensen

Denmark's second largest city Aarhus,

decided to finance a plan to become carbon-

neutral by 2030

Going carbon neutral is a powerful way of demonstrating leadership and helps

make the case for business decisions that support the transformation towards a

cleaner economy

• Experience exists

• Tools for building and testing urban infrastructure scenarios of cities, with the goal of

lowering annual GHG emissions and energy use exist (ex. CarbonNeutralCityPlanner,

Carbon Neutral Local Government - http://www.toolkit.bc.ca/resource/becoming-carbon-

neutral-workbook-and-guidebook )

• Citizens can provide smart ideas if involved from the start, but have to measure and report

to the community GHG emissions and results

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Why to go carbon neutral?

• Attracting finance, technologies, private investments

• Better energy security

• Economic benefits- green jobs, tourism

• Social – improved quality of life

• Environmental benefits

• Meeting EU and int. obligations

• Supporting sustainable development

Urban Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA)

in the EE and CIS

• NAMA suitable mechanism for supporting city/town’s

policies in developing countries

• Municipalities have related plans already:

• Astana (Kazakhstan)

• Skopje (FYR of Macedonia)

• Number of towns in Turkey

• Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

• Island of Krk carbon – neutral (Croatia)

To be submitted to UNFCCC NAMA registry for international support

10

Possible urban mitigation actions

A package measures or stand alone policy, measure, project with transformational change:

• Transport measures (e.g. optimization, change of fuel, cycling paths, parking, better public transport)

• Energy efficiency (in buildings -Insulating buildings can reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent. It not only saves a lot of energy during the winter but

also provides cooling during the summertime)

• RES – (domestic solar, street lights)

• Waste management

• Energy – (heating, biomass)

• Parks and green areas

• Introduction of Standards

• Green procurement

• Public awareness, behavior change (3R)

11

Urban Transport NAMA Turkey12

An internationally supported NAMA of a preparatory nature

Two-step Approach: I. Pilot Cities II. Country-wide Roll-Out

Will create an institutional, knowledge and planning framework through the establishment of a

Model Comprehensive Urban Low-Carbon Mobility Plans to be employed across multiple

metropolitan areas and included in the “Turkey Transportation Plan.”

Goal: to facilitate reductions of urban CO2 emissions by up to 15% compared to BAU

Actions:

1. High quality public transport (bus, rail, metro, ferry, where appropriate).

2. Cycling priority lanes and pedestrianization schemes.

3. Intelligent Transport Systems (i.e., smart traffic and parking management).

4. Green Asphalt technology (using “warm mix” or “green asphalt” and “reflective concrete” technology).

5. City-wide electric refuel stations.

6. Alternative fuel promotion and vehicle efficiency.

7. Integrated urban mobility throughout different modes of transport (i.e., combined ticketing schemes).

Urban NAMA in Bosnia and Herzegovina – town of Tuzla

• Complex Urban NAMA for implementation

• Goal: 440,777 tons CO2-reduction;

• Co-benefits:

• • 23,516 man-month green-jobs generated

• • Reduced market-barriers for households, SMEs and investors

• • Significant environmental impacts & improvement of citizens’ health conditions

• Actions:

•1. Increased capacity of Municipality in mainstreaming CC challenges into development plans, Municipal EE&RES Revolving-Fund

•2. Awareness: Tuzla CC&EE Educational-Centre

• 3. Increased EE (cogeneration) Tuzla District Heating

• 4. Increased EE of all Municipal public-buildings increased

• 5. Coal-heating replaced with biomass in 3400 households with technical/geographical barriers for District-Heating connections

• 6. Overall public-lightning optimised

• 7. 1MW photovoltaic power-plant constructed on 3 multi-purpose locations in city-centre

• 8. 5km bicycle-path constructed in city-centre operational

• 9. Five electrical-cars

•

13

14

Juliet B. Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College, and cofounder of A New

American Dream, an organization devoted to transforming North American lifestyles to make

them more ecologically and socially sustainable.

“Humans are degrading the planet far faster than they

are regenerating it. As we travel along this shutdown

path, food, energy, transport, and consumer goods are

becoming increasingly expensive.”

“The economic downturn that has accompanied the

ecological crisis has led to another type of scarcity:

incomes, jobs, and credit are also in short supply. Our

usual way back to growth -- a debt-financed consumer

boom -- is no longer an option that our households, or

planet, can afford.”

http://www.newdream.org/resources/publications/2011-05-plenitude

Marketing Culture

That Makes Children

"Believe They Are

What They Own."

15

Thank you!

daniela.carrington@undp.org

http://www.ted.com/playlists/81/ted_in_3_minutes.html