Briefing Note UN-Habitat s work on Cities and Climate Change

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1 Committee of Permanent Representatives Subcommittee on Policy and Programme Briefing Note UN-Habitat s work on Cities and Climate Change 21 Nov 2014 UN-Habitat plays a leading role in helping member states and local authorities to address climate change in urban areas. Below we summarize UN-Habitat s: A. Engagement on the topic of cities and climate change since 2008; B. Recent involvement in global level processes; C. Recent work at the regional, national and local levels; and D. Ongoing efforts at institutional development and resource mobilization. A. Brief history of engagement on cities and climate change since 2008 In 2008, following the pivotal 13 th Conference of Parties (COP-13) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, UN-Habitat launched its Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI). With core funding generously provided by the Government of Norway, this project initially began activities in four cities while also providing for normative engagement. In 2009 the Governing Council strengthened UN-Habitat s mandate in this area with its Resolution on Cities and Climate Change (GC 22/3). This resolution calls on UN- Habitat to widen the geographic scope of the [CCCI] initiative, and to expand the range of [its] capacity development approaches. CCCI s activities have varied by country and city. In the Philippines, for example, UN-Habitat first assisted Sorsogon City in assessing vulnerability, then helped the Government to develop, test, and roll out guidelines and capacity-building modules for mainstreaming climate change into local authorities statutory plans. In Burkina Faso, Nepal and Sri Lanka, CCCI (with RUAF) first assisted pilot cities to implement demonstration activities in urban agriculture, then helped to enshrine those approaches in national policies, local bylaws and programmes. By 2013, using core funding along with additional resources mobilized 1, CCCI had supported more than 40 mostly secondary cities (largely in Asia but also in Africa and Latin America) in planning to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CCCI was the subject of an external evaluation in From the Government of Sweden, UN Development Account, Cities Alliance, UN-Habitat MTSIP, UNEP and country and municipal sources.

2 2 In 2011 UN-Habitat made a major normative contribution to the field with the publication of its Global Report on Human Settlements (GRHS) 2011: Cities and Climate Change. Also around this time UN-Habitat launched two emissions reductions projects funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF): Promoting Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Eastern Africa, and Promoting Sustainable Transport Solutions for East Africa, both with UNEP as implementing agency. In 2012, with funding generously provided by the European Commission (EC), UN-Habitat launched (together with ICLEI) its Promoting Low Emission Urban Development Strategies in Emerging Economy Countries (Urban-LEDS) Project. This project supports the development of low emission urban development strategies in Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa. In each of these countries we work intensively with two model cities; meanwhile those cities share experiences with four to six satellite cities. Several local authorities in Europe serve as resource cities. At the same time the Project is also working at the national as well as at the global level, e.g., to improve systems that support the consistent measurement, reporting and verification of city-level emissions, and otherwise paving the way for vertical integration. Advocacy in favor of the integration of cities and local authorities into national and international climate frameworks, a long-term aspiration, is also under way. UN-Habitat has mobilized cofunding to address key spatial planning issues in Urban LEDS project cities using experts fielded by the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP). The Urban LEDS Project is currently undergoing a mid-term evaluation by an external evaluator. In 2013 UN-Habitat (with UNEP) began implementing the EC-funded Myanmar Climate Change Alliance project. This project is helping the Government to develop a national climate change strategy and sector action plans while strengthening its vertical response to climate change; the team is also implementing local level actions in two pilot areas. Cities and Climate Change was also the overall theme of the collaboration between UN- Habitat and UNEP under the Partnership Framework for , as documented in the joint progress reports by both Executive Directors. The overall aim of this collaboration was to enable cities to better assess and prioritize local environmental concerns and to have a voice in national and global environmental debates, in particular with respect to climate change. B. Engagement in global level processes UN Climate Summit (23 September 2014) While separate from ongoing negotiations under the UNFCCC (see below), the Climate Summit held in New York City on 23 September 2014 was designed in part to raise the level of ambition of member states to reach a strong, universal climate agreement at COP-21 in Paris in late The Summit also sought to catalyze multi-partner action on the ground. Cities was a major theme of the Summit. In January 2014 Ban Ki-moon asked the ED to lead the development of

3 3 city initiatives to be launched at the Summit. In this effort the ED was joined the following month by Michael Bloomberg, appointed as Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. During the run-up to the Climate Summit the ED personally led a number of meetings and calls to invite partners to discuss emerging city initiatives. He convened in-person meetings at the World Urban Forum in Medellin in April, the Ascent Meeting in Abu Dhabi in May 2014, and the City Policy Room at the Climate Summit in New York City in September Partners launched several city initiatives at the Climate Summit. The official launch took place at a Cities Action session. The Prime Minister of Italy and the President of Tunisia co-chaired this session, while high-level officials from Brazil, China, Ghana and the United States; the Mayors of Paris, Seoul, Zhenjiang and Rio de Janeiro; the CEOs of the French Development Agency and the Japan International Cooperation Agency; and the President of Standard and Poor s Financial Services launched individual city initiatives. Major multi-partner city initiatives launched at the Climate Summit were as follows 2 : The Compact of Mayors is an agreement by city networks and other partners to undertake a transparent and supportive approach to city-level emissions reductions in order to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience to climate change. This Compact will encourage cities to publicly commit to deep greenhouse gas emission reductions; make existing targets and plans public; and report on their progress annually, using a newlystandardized measurement system. The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance is a partnership between public financial institutions, private institutional investors, third-party financial advisors, NGOs and others. The Alliance aims to catalyze and accelerate additional capital flows to cities, maximize investment in low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure, and close the investment gap in urban areas. The success of the Alliance will be measured by its ability to stimulate the flow of investment towards climate-related infrastructure projects in cities across a large spectrum of financial actors, nationally and internationally. The primary focus will be on cities in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative is to achieve the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in cities, with a target of raising the share of travel by electric vehicles in participating cities to 30% by Eventually the Initiative will target at least 100 cities. 2 As formally categorized by the UN Secretary-General s office the first two initiatives list below are considered city initiatives, the third a transportation initiative and the fourth a resilience initiative; however as indicated all have a strong city/urban orientation. For action statements on these initiatives and others please see

4 4 The Resilient Cities Acceleration Initiative aims to double the number of cities and partners in support of city resilience building, to assist five hundred local governments to develop resilience action plans, and to catalyze US$ 2 billion in-kind and direct support for cities action plans by The overarching objective of this Initiative is to accelerate the design and implementation of integrated strategies that strengthen the resilience of urban systems. In the weeks following the Summit, UN-Habitat has participated in in-person multi-day work planning meetings for both the Compact of Mayors and the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance. At COP-20 in Lima (see below), partners will present and discuss proposed work plans. Work plans will emphasize outputs and early results that can be accomplished by the time of COP-21, but also may look ahead to Habitat III and beyond. At present these initiatives lack funding, therefore partners will need to mobilize resources. Likewise UN-Habitat has participated in internal discussions and outreach presentations related to all four initiatives. The UN Secretary-General s office continues to lead the initiatives launched at the Summit, with no secretariat-type functions as yet assigned to any partners. Processes under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Over the past twelve months UN-Habitat engaged extensively with ongoing processes under the UNFCCC, summarized as follows: November 2013 The DED led the UN-Habitat delegation to COP-19 in Warsaw. She participated in the first-ever Cities Day at a UNFCCC COP. The DED also participated in a Warsaw-led side event that targeted local officials. She congratulated local officials who had received a Government Leadership Award from the World Green Building Council, for which UN-Habitat fielded a judge. Likewise UN-Habitat organized a One UN side event on UN agencies supporting climate smart cities, and presented project-level findings. February 2014 In a meeting in Dar es Salaam of the Least Developing Countries Expert Group (LEG), a s/m advised on how to engage with local authorities during the process of developing National Adaptation Plans, as feedback on existing guidelines. June 2014 At the mid-year climate talks in Bonn, the DED chaired a forum on experiences and best practices of cities and subnational authorities in relation to adaptation and mitigation. October 2014 At this Bonn meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), a s/m reported back on progress made since the mid-year Bonn conference and the 23 September Climate Summit.

5 5 December 2014 UN-Habitat will field a small delegation at COP-20 in Lima, Peru. As part of this engagement UN-Habitat will: Convene a one-half day scoping meeting with partners to discuss a possible new normative product: minimum guidelines on city-level climate action plans. As an input to this discussion we are currently undertaking comparative research on the plans of 20 cities that have reported actual reductions in carbon emissions and that are beginning to adapt to climate change. Participate in the launch of Version 2.0 of the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions, an initiative to which UN-Habitat is a partner and member of the advisory committee. Participate in planning meetings and presentations of city initiatives launched at the September 2014 Climate Summit. Celebrate the launch of the 2014 Climate Action publication, which will feature an article by the ED on Addressing climate change through planned city extensions 3. Present findings from local-level activities and participate in One UN exhibition booths. UN-Habitat supports the ICLEI-led Local Government Climate Roadmap process that provides an advocacy platform for the organized local government sector in UNFCCC processes. How best to build on the momentum to date in support of reaching a strong climate agreement in Paris in 2015, and then examining those results through a human settlements lens at Habitat III in 2016, remains a topic for debate between UN-Habitat, its partners and its Governing Council. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5 th Assessment Report The IPCC s Assessment Reports provide the main scientific underpinnings to global climate debates. At the time of the last (4 th ) Assessment Report (2007), researchers identified understanding how secondary cities in developing countries were responding to climate change as a lacuna in the scientific literature. To help fill this gap the agency launched a conscientious effort to glean lessons from its work on the ground and publish findings. Major publications included the agency s GRHS 2011 (noted above), and a special edition of Local Environment: the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability (2013) that featured seven articles on the agency s Cities and Climate Change Initiative. As a result of this effort, UN-Habitat was cited more than 40 times in the urban adaptation chapter of the IPCC s 5 th Assessment Report ( ) a global level impact on enhanced knowledge. Cities and climate change in the Post 2015 Development Agenda Climate change and urbanization have been two important and related themes in the discussions on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. Since 2012, UN-Habitat has worked with Governments 3 See

6 6 at the country level to explain the importance of sustainable urbanization for national development and climate action in the context of discussions on the Post-2015 Development Agenda including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UN-Habitat has been participating in the work of the United Nations System Task Team (UNTT) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and its Working Group on Indicators. UN-Habitat further provided inputs on sustainable urbanization to the work of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. It has been participating in the Technical Support Team of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. It has also been participating in the activities of the Thematic Group on Sustainable Cities of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the United Cities and Local Governments Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments and the Communitas Coalition for Sustainable Cities and Regions. A significant majority of the Member States on the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals favoured the proposed SDG 11, Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, as a standalone goal. SDG 11 has seven action targets and three means of implementation targets. The proposed target 11.b aims to "by 2020, increase by x% the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters...". The action targets on housing, transport, urban planning, disaster damage reduction, environmental impact, rural-urban linkages and sustainable building materials would also have a significant positive impact on climate change action. Such targets would complement the proposed SDG 13 on climate change, which also addresses resilience and adaptive capacity. Throughout the deliberations on the proposed SDGs, countries have been very cautious not to prejudge the outcome of COP-21. Engagement in other UN platforms -- ECOSOC At a side meeting on sustainable urbanization and climate change held on the margins of the May meeting of the UN Environment and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York, the ED delivered an opening statement highlighting the crucial role that urban planning and design can play in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. C. Activities at the regional, national and local levels During 2014 UN-Habitat had an impact on the formulation of the National Climate Change Policy for Papua New Guinea. Per inputs provided, the published policy discusses human settlements, sustainable land use planning and subnational partnerships. In previous years UN- Habitat had similarly contributed to the development of national climate change policies for Fiji, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The UN-Habitat publication on Addressing Urban Issues in National

7 7 Climate Change Policies (CCCI Policy Note No. 3) provides normative guidance to support policy dialogue on this topic 4. In 2014 CCCI was forced to sharply reduce its core support to individual countries and cities in addressing climate change. This was due to significant cuts to the core budget, coupled with the need to focus remaining resources primarily on the unique opportunities presented in 2014 for global level engagement presented above. Despite these cuts in the core CCCI budget, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific was able to undertake a number of climate change activities at the regional and local levels using additional resources mobilized. At the regional level UN-Habitat trained professionals from six Asian countries on pro-poor urban climate resilience, organized (with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the European Union) a Euro-Asian dialogue on Climate Change Diplomacy and Urban Resilience, implemented (with UNDP, UN Global Pulse and USAID) an Urban Futures workshop in Bangkok, released three short films on climate change and published regional position papers. At the local level CCCI helped a number of cities and human settlements in Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea to complete vulnerability and adaptation assessments; and Kathmandu Valley and the capital cities of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to develop climate action plans. Moreover the projects presented above (GEF funded projects in eastern Africa, Urban LEDS, Myanmar Climate Change Alliance) continued their national- and local-level activities in D. Ongoing efforts at institutional development & resource mobilization Climate change as a cross-cutting issue at UN-Habitat One of the expected accomplishments of subprogramme 2 of the Strategic Plan of UN-Habitat for is improved policies, plans and strategies that contribute to the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change adopted by partner city, regional and national authorities. Climate change is also one of four cross-cutting issues at UN-Habitat. Under the previous strategic period we operated under a formal Climate Change Strategy ( ). An internal draft update of this Strategy exists for the current strategic period. We are currently updating this document to reflect: (i) outcomes of the September Climate Summit, (ii) relevant comments on cross-cutting issues from the recent draft OIOS Evaluation of UN-Habitat, (iii) the work plan, etc. We expect to have this cross-cutting climate change strategy ready in early Engagement with Global Environment Facility & Adaptation Fund 4 See

8 8 UN-Habitat would be well positioned to build the capacity of local officials and otherwise help cities to access climate finance from important sources such as the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund. Becoming accredited agencies of those funds would represent major steps forward in the agency s institutional development 5. In 2009 UN-Habitat applied to become an agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF); in 2011 it reapplied under new modalities. While this application is still pending, in a meeting on 24 Sept 2014 in New York the GEF CEO advised the UN-Habitat ED that acceptance of UN- Habitat as a GEF agency was very unlikely in the short- to medium-term. This is due in part to preference given at present by the GEF Board to bringing non UN agencies into the GEF family. In August 2014 two s/m attended a consultative meeting held in Washington, D.C., on the GEF s forthcoming Integrated Approach Pilot on Sustainable Cities. In March 2012 UN-Habitat applied to become a multilateral implementing entity of the Adaptation Fund. This application is pending. We are currently responding to their requests for clarification and additional information. Resource mobilization During 2013 and 2014 UN-Habitat partnered with UNEP to develop a GEF Project Identification Forms (PIF) on ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation in urban areas for Bhutan, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Cambodia. The GEF Secretariat has approved this PIF and this project has entered the Project Preparation Grant phase. Other PIFs on related topics are under development for: (i) the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and (ii) Nepal. During 2014 we developed concept notes on the following climate change-related topics: Local government integration in national adaptation planning in pilot countries (with GIZ; submitted to Germany/IKI in June 2014; pending) Start-up activities of the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (submitted to Government of Germany in August 2014; not accepted) Enhancing the adaptive capacity of Arctic settlements to address climate change (submitted to the Norwegian Parliamentary Delegation to the Arctic Council, most recently in August 2014; pending) Urban LEDS Phase 2 (with ICLEI; submitted to EC with most recent update in October 2014; pending) Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation in urban areas in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines (with UNEP and UNDP; submitted to the German BMUB/IKI; pending) Mainstreaming gender (under discussion with UN Women; not yet submitted to any donor) 5 At present UN-Habitat can only act as an executing agency to the GEF. As in the two ongoing GEF projects noted above, an accredited agency such as UNEP must serve as the lead implementing agency.