Why world's climate response 'will be won or lost in cities'
The last time the United Nations held a global conference on behalf of the world鈥檚 cities, back in 1996, one environmental issue was conspicuously not emphasized in the resulting vision document: There was no call for concerted action to mitigate global warming. 鈥淐limate change鈥� was mentioned only once, as something that 鈥渃an鈥� happen when humans use fossil fuels.
This week in Ecuador, as an anticipated 45,000 people gather for a sequel, things are playing out on a very different track.
Heading into the meeting known as Habitat III, participating nations have prepared a reflecting the urgent belief that cities will be ground zero for mitigating and adapting to climate change. While the document itself is light on short-term implementation methods, experts hope the adoption of the document this week will be a launching pad in the battle for sustainable development 聽that the UN has 鈥渨ill be won or lost in cities."
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a very exciting time for cities in the last 10 years because cities as a source of solutions has been recognized,鈥� said Ani Dasgupta, global director of the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, in a conference call with reporters.聽鈥淭here is momentum for the global community to come together and do things, and I think Habitat this time will be different from the past two Habitats."
Indeed, recent months have seen a procession of landmark international agreements on climate and the planet鈥檚 fragile future. Last December nearly 200 countries signed onto the landmark Paris Agreement pledging to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. That's been followed by a framework to address聽international聽air-travel emissions (albeit weaker than many hoped for), and global commitments this past weekend for slashing the use of hydrofluorocarbons 鈥撀爌owerful greenhouse gases 鈥撀燼s refrigerants.
Beyond that, in the past two years the UN's Millennium Development Goals have evolved into 鈥淪ustainable Development Goals鈥� to be achieved in the next 15 years, thus integrating environmental needs with the fight against global poverty.
But if the world's response to climate change is growing, so are its cities 鈥撀爌articularly in the Global South. Between 1950 and 2050 the world鈥檚 urban population is from under one-third to about two-thirds of the total population, with 52 and 21 percent of that population living in Asia and Africa respectively.
With more than half the human population already living in cities, urban areas are now disproportionately responsible for the planet鈥檚 emissions. While they cover less than 2 percent of the Earth鈥檚 surface, 78 percent of its energy and produce 60 percent of its CO2 emissions.
The task: move from goals to action
So if all the climate pledges being made now are to produce actual results, urbanists say, cities will have to drive and display those changes. Potentially, what helps Earth's ecosystems can also make city life cleaner and more comfortable for their booming and often-impoverished residents.
But this is why some urbanists are so worried about the vagueness in the headline document of Habitat III: the New Urban Agenda.
Although the Agenda is binding 鈥� unlike the declarations of past Habitat conferences 鈥� critics are frustrated that it didn鈥檛 include more specifics on how people living in cities are supposed to make these changes happen, instead leaving those practical details to be grappled with at the conference itself and beyond.
The NUA never once mentions 鈥渕ayors,鈥� for example, which critics say illustrates a fundamental disconnect pervading the road map 鈥撀燽etween the countries that are signing on to the goals and the communities that will be at the crux of implementation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of a wish list,鈥� says Cassidy Johnson, a senior lecturer at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit at University College London.
鈥淭here are no targets they have to achieve in there,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t could have been much more basic 鈥� and then had some implementation [guidelines]. It just seems like the whole thing was a bit haphazard.鈥�
What is lost from that 鈥� adds David Satterthwaite, a senior fellow at the the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, in an email to the Monitor 鈥� is 鈥渢he commitments that urban (municipal, city, metropolitan) governments should be making and where.鈥�
鈥淚 hope [for] a strong commitment on the part of all groups gathered at [Habitat III] to strengthen the local processes that are needed to deliver on the commitments and help fund them,鈥� he continued.
There is evidence that these processes are already under way in some cities.
Examples of progress
In 1994 the city of Surat, India, experienced a flood that triggered a major plague outbreak. In the aftermath, city officials launched aggressive cleanup operations and longer-term governance reforms. The city expanded garbage collection and access to sanitation throughout the city and paved roads in the city鈥檚 slums. The city also improved data-gathering and monitoring on water quality and public health. Historically prone to flooding, the city is now investing in climate resiliency and adaptation infrastructure. The post-plague response has brought Surat 鈥渢o the forefront of urban management in India, and the city is known for its state-of-the-art infrastructure,鈥� according to last year.
Meanwhile Medell铆n, in Colombia, the 鈥渕urder capital of the world鈥� in the 1990s to the 鈥渨orld鈥檚 most innovative city鈥� in 2013聽through a variety of initiatives improving access to housing, upgrading transportation, and reforming land use. The city focused on improving its poorest communities, diverting more revenue from the sales of its abundant hydroelectric power to fund various improvements and partnering with the business community to build parks, provide basic services, and expand the cable car system into the city鈥檚 poorest communities.
The task of the third Habitat conference, experts say, will be to connect these isolated efforts around the world and build a global dialogue around how to implement the NUAs goals.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to figure out how implementation is going to happen,鈥� said Ana Moreno, secretariat coordinator for Habitat III, in a conference call with reporters.
This is only the third time the conference has taken place in 60 years, and urbanists are hoping this conference will lead to more concrete results than the previous two. The Vancouver conference in 1976 proclaimed that inequitable and unsustainable urbanization will get worse 鈥渦nless positive and concrete action is taken at national and international levels.鈥� The Habitat II conference 20 years later in Istanbul resulted in a hailing 鈥渁 new era of cooperation鈥� and a Habitat Agenda calling for 鈥渁dequate shelter for all鈥� and 鈥渟ustainable human settlements.鈥�
Twenty years on from Istanbul, organizers in Quito are hoping that a more focused and urgent message will lead to more widespread dialogue, cooperation and, ultimately, progress.
鈥淧revious Habitats were more generally about human settlements. This is focused on urbanization,鈥� said Ms. Moreno. 鈥淭his not an excluding conversation, it鈥檚 a focusing conversation on big challenges humanity is facing.鈥�
Lessons from cities like Surat and Medell铆n 鈥� specifically, focusing on delivering basic services to everyone in a city 鈥� could be a start, added Mr. Dasgupta in another conference call.
鈥淭his idea of actually getting services to everyone as a path towards growth and environmental sustainability is a departure from what we鈥檝e traditionally believed in,鈥� he said.
鈥淐ities don鈥檛 change overnight, so their decisions over roads, over land use, that they make today will impact them over [decades],鈥� he added. 鈥淨uito [needs to] be the beginning of the conversation and not end of the conversation.鈥�
