GrEEEn Solutions for Livable Cities

Sonia Chand Sandhu, Ramola Naik Singru, John Bachmann, Vaideeswaran Sankaran, Pierre Arnoux

• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9789292573515
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: City Planning & Urban Development
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This publication is a result of a 2-year innovative, exploratory, and reflective study of cities as unique urban spaces that support life, work, and play. It responds to major issues that affect the quality of life of urban residents. This publication offers practical ways on how urban managers, urban practitioners, businesspeople, and citizens can engage to make cities more livable by building on their distinctive physical, social, cultural, and economic characteristics. With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, the book comes at the right time to offer integrated urban development solutions that can translate global development commitments into urban-level actions to achieve livable cities.

1 Green Growth and Cities

Background

The scale of urbanization in Asia today is unprecedented in urban history. Asia’s urbanization is unique compared with that of other regions in terms of the absolute growth of the urban population as well as the number of densely populated megacities (ADB 2012a, Dahiya 2012). Between 2010 and 2050, Asia’s urban population is anticipated to double in size to 3.2 billion, which is equivalent to an additional 100,000 urban residents each day. By 2050, two-thirds of Asia’s population will be urban (ADB 2012a).

Asia’s urban challenges are characterized by (i) increasing household consumption, (ii) rising demand for urban services, (iii) depletion of natural resources, (iv) increasing levels of pollution and greenhouse gases, and (v) increasing vulnerability to natural hazards and risks from climate change variations. Asian cities have to cope with pressure on physical infrastructure, rapid environmental degradation, and increased risks to health and real property. As a result, the quality of life for many residents of Asian cities is declining. The “livability” of many cities is decreasing because of air pollution, traffic congestion, lack of choice in transport options, shortage of public open spaces, and inadequate urban and social services.

The livability challenge in Asia has in recent years driven urban policy makers to seek solutions in integrated, holistic urban planning. Sector-specific initiatives alone are insufficient for accommodating urban in-migration and protecting the natural environment. Many local governments, international organizations, and planning professionals have endorsed an integrated approach, in which (i) land use, mobility, water, and energy are all managed in a coordinated fashion across municipal departments; and (ii) stakeholders in government, the private sector, and civil society work together to achieve the socioeconomic goals of the city.

Solutions integrating the 3Es—economy, environment, and equity—are key to addressing livability challenges in Asian Cities.

Recent Evolution of Green Growth Approaches

The concept of sustainability in the urban arena has evolved rapidly in recent decades (UN-Habitat 2009b). In the 1990s, the emphasis was on minimizing the negative impacts associated with urban development through protection of ecological assets and better management of wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste through unilateral investments. Given the wide range of urban activities that put pressure on the natural environment, a multidisciplinary approach to urban management was therefore favored. The challenge was to find a way to get urban professionals out of their traditional technical “silos” and into a collaborative mode where land use, resource consumption, infrastructure services, and economic growth could be managed in a coordinated fashion. Such horizontal collaboration has over time been encouraged by multilateral and bilateral donors.

Since 2000, the objective of environmental sustainability has become more closely linked in urban policy circles to that of economic growth (Figure 1.1). In the mid-2000s, many development agencies and research organizations began to advocate for “green growth,” which holds that appropriate levels of environmental protection will contribute to the renewability of natural resources, which in turn facilitates economic production and the satisfaction of basic needs over the longer term. In a more ambitious iteration, the growth of both green technology and services enables environmental protection and drives economic growth (UNEP 2011). Before gaining heightened global attention during the Rio+20 Summit in 2012, the concept of the “green economy” was already well established in the regional policy dialogue in Asia and the Pacific. At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in 2005, green growth was proposed as a regional strategy to enable environmentally sustainable economic growth (Box 1.1).

Figure 1.1: Timeline of Selected Green Growth Programs and Publications

ADB = Asian Development Bank, BMZ = German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, DFID = Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, EU = European Union, GGGI = Global Green Growth Institute, GIZ = German Development Corporation, IDB = Inter-American Development Bank, ICC = International Chamber of Commerce, ICLEI = Local Governments for Sustainability (formerly: International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), IPCC = Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ISO = International Organization for Standardization, LSE = London School of Economics and Political Science, OECD = Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, UCL = University College London, UNEP = United Nations Environment Programme, UNESCAP = United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifi c, UN-Habitat = United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

Source: Authors.

Box 1.1: UNESCAP Green Growth Strategy

A series of energy, water, food, and financial crises in Asia since the 1990s highlighted the dangers of resource-driven development based on “growth first, clean-up later.” In response, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) formulated six pillars for achieving less resource-dependent, more climate-friendly, and more socially inclusive development:

• Sustainable consumption and production: more efficient use of resources; life-cycle approach; and triple bottom line of environmental, economic, and equity aspects in the production process

• Greening business and markets: companies as agents of change toward a sustainable development path, right incentives and support measures, and corporate social responsibility

• Sustainable infrastructure: more efficient flow of things, people, information, natural resources, and money; and fewer negative social and environmental impacts

• Green tax and budget reform: price reflection of negative externalities associated with increasing consumption, environmentally based taxing, and elimination of subsidies that have perverse effects

• Eco-efficiency indicators: impact monitoring, improved decision making, and adjusted policies for enhanced green growth

• Investment in natural capital: ecosystem services, local livelihoods and resource cycles, and climate-friendly investments in natural assets

Practical experience in recent years has underscored how the green growth concept must be adjusted to the local context. At the same time, the overarching regional concept has been enriched by local experiences, knowledge, and expertise.

Sources: Green Growth Best Practice Initiative (GGBP). 2014. Green Growth in Practice: Lessons from Country Experiences. Seoul: GGBP/Global Green Growth Institute. http://www.greengrowth.org/?q=publication/full-report-green-growth-practice-lessons-country-experiences; UNESCAP. 2015. Green Growth. http://www.greengrowth.org/

Traffic-choked streets, uncontrolled dumpsites, clogged rivers, and informal housing in high-risk areas are symptoms of unsustainable patterns of urban development.

Photo Credits: Renard Teipelke (top left to bottom right); ADB/Lester Ledesma (lower left)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines green growth as “fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies” (OECD 2013, p. 3). The OECD also identified recommendations on how green growth can happen in the urban context (Box 1.2). Thus, green growth raised the potential of putting natural assets to use in fostering a low-carbon economy, thereby opening up new markets, creating jobs, and spurring innovation (UNESCAP 2015a).

Box 1.2: OECD – Enabling Green Growth in Cities

As part of its Green Growth Studies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has identified recommendations on how green growth can happen in the urban context. Retrofitting buildings for increased energy efficiency is favorable for creating jobs. An intelligent transport system can help attract skilled labor and investors. If green products and services are to be promoted, a closer look at locational potentials and support for innovation, research, and development are recommended. For an increase in urban land values, various urban redevelopment options can help, including eco-districts and infill development. These actions can be enhanced through various governance mechanisms, for instance, incentives and clear enforcement of rules as well as cooperation and through data collection and monitoring across administrative boundaries, cross-sector collaboration, and local capacity building. On the financial side, public–private partnerships, carbon finance, loans, bonds, value capture taxes, and development fees and charges are the broad categories of options. The OECD report underscores that no city action can become fully successful and sustainable without some national action; national governments can support cities through financing, technical assistance, monitoring mechanisms, the right price signals, adjusted standards, reasses...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Figures, Tables, and Boxes
• Foreword
• Message: ADB Southeast Asia Department
• Message: Vision for GrEEEn Cities
• Messages: GrEEEn City Project Countries
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Executive Summary
• 1 Green Growth and Cities
• 2 The GrEEEn Cities operational framework
• 3 Preparing a GrEEEn City action Plan
• 4 Designing GrEEEn Solutions
• 5 Creating Urban Management Partnerships
• 6 Key Enablers for Achieving Livable Cities
• 7 toward livable Cities
• References
• About the Authors and Contributors
• Index
• Glimpses of the first regional Conference on Enabling GrEEEn Cities
• Back Cover