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A QUESTION

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NOVEMBER 2015

OF DEVELOPMENT
SYNTHESES OF AFD STUDIES AND RESEARCH

How are cities


combating
climate change?

http://librairie.afd.fr/filtres/?terms=1085

Aware of the role that they can play, cities have been organising themselves into
networks since the 1990s (C40, Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI Local
Governments for Sustainability, etc.) to share their experiences and reinforce
their actions. Their commitment now singles them out as leading players: for
example, London has announced an 80% reduction in its emissions by 2050,
which is one of the most ambitious objectives targeted at local authority level
or even national level.

What are the enabling conditions for cities to commit?


The cities that engage in the fight against climate change are often more
vulnerable than other municipalities to the consequences of this change.
Da Nang, in Vietnam, has been hit by twenty typhoons over the last decade,
whereas only one typhoon was reported from 1964 to 2002. Agadir, in Morocco,
has experienced increased flooding over recent years, with deadly flash floods
in 2014. Periods of drought, flooding and the increased salinity of freshwater
sources have negative effects on agricultural production. The visibility of these
events enables local elected officials to justify stepping up climate actions.
Their commitment is all the more readily accepted if the municipality involved
is vulnerable to other risks, such as earthquakes in Agadir or Lima, or the El
Nio phenomenon in Peru.
The scientific community nonetheless remains prudent about the causality link between the
increase in extreme events and global climate change.
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A comparative study
conducted in five cities of
the Global North and South
(Agadir, Da Nang, Lima,
London, Nantes) aimed
at understanding their
commitment to action on
climate change. Why have
they made this a priority?
What concrete actions
have been launched? What
challenges are they facing?

Cities are often blamed for being the main emitters of greenhouse gases (up to
75% of CO2 emissions are attributed to cities [IPCC, Climate Change Synthesis
Report 2014]) due to the energy consumption tied to the activities they host:
transport, industry, etc. But they are also the first to suffer from climate change:
extreme climate events have more drastic outcomes in highly populated areas
and the harmful effects of polluting activities are felt more strongly.

A QUES

CITIES HAVE BECOME KEY


PLAYERS IN CLIMATE ISSUES

A second favourable condition is when ecological


concerns and environmental policies are already
present. This means that local climate strategies can
be built on institutions, lines of financing and tools that
had already been set up to address environmental
subjects. In Peru, the 2009 Law laid the foundations
for local environmental plans. Lima approved an urban
agricultural programme and a scheme to protect green
spaces in 2012, then went on to craft a local climate
policy in 2014 (Gouldson et al., 2014).

Cancun COP15. In Lima, it was the hosting of COP20


that helped to speed up the vote for the local climate
strategy in 2014. Similarly, Paris is keen to set the
example for COP21 in December 2015: thermal
rehabilitation of residential buildings, clean transport,
renewable energies

What concrete actions?


In all of the cities studied, the resources allocated to
climate were first used to build up the local authorities
human resources. In Agadir, a division for the
environment and sustainable development was created
in 2009. In Da Nang, a climate change coordination
office (CCCO) was set up in 2011 with five staff and
attached directly to the city-province executive.

A further advantage is the existence of a regulatory


framework. This makes it possible to influence areas
that do not depend on the powers of local authorities.
In China, norms on energy consumption have been
introduced by the central government and enforced
at local level (Zheng et al., 2012). France has been
a pioneer in legislation and, since the 2010 Grenelle
Laws, has had compulsory municipal climate-airenergy plans for towns with over 50,000 inhabitants,
and this will soon be applied to towns of over 20,000
inhabitants.

As far as climate actions are concerned, field enquiries


have reported that, in the main, regional diagnostics
(carbon audits, vulnerability assessments) have been
carried out and strategic plans and awareness-raising
campaigns have been developed, but very little largescale investment has been observed.

A fourth frequently found ingredient is a political


commitment to the climate issue. London, Nantes and
Agadir quite clearly owe their progress to a specific
political will, which can be explained by the ideological
leanings of their local officials (the ecologists pressure
on the local executive in Nantes and London), or by
the choice of an innovation strategy, partly thanks to
the search for international support, as in the case of
Agadir.

This highlights the fact that climate change policies are


only in their early stages. But there are no shortcuts:
municipalities first need to analyse the existing
situation, then develop strategies before launching
actions. Yet, it also reflects the weakness of local
resources dedicated to climate issues. This is why
the local authority networks are advocating for direct
access to international climate finance. Additionally,
integrating the fight against climate change into
sectoral policies (housing, transport, etc.) would help
to optimise the climate impact of existing budgets.

External aid is the fifth enabling condition and


represents considerable leverage particularly for
cities in the Global South. Da Nang has received
support for its climate strategy from the Rockefeller
Foundation, the World Bank, the Asian Development
Bank, APEC and German, Japanese and French
co-operations. Moreover, Vietnam is the worlds fourth
largest beneficiary of financing through the Clean
Development Mechanisms (253 CDM projects in 2013;
source: APEC).

In fact, cities often implement climate projects


without knowing it. For example, storm drains for
poorer districts are primarily aimed at improving
living conditions, but they also contribute to climate
adaptation in cases where flooding is recurrent. Also,
existing projects can be labelled as climate projects
a posteriori without this being a misnomer. In Nantes,
the changeover from gas to biomass to power urban
heating, mainly for reasons of cost, turned out to be
highly positive for the mitigation of GHG emissions.

Lastly, hosting large international conferences often


provides a city with an opportunity to intensify its
efforts. The Global Cities Covenant on Climate was
thus adopted in Mexico in 2010, just ahead of the

3 000

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FORECASTS OF
TONS OF
CO 2 AVOIDED EACH YEAR THANKS TO
THE BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM (BRT)
IN AGADIR
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The local authorities studied did indeed show a


preference for climate co-benefits associated with
economic and social objectives, often seen as priority.
They are prepared to invest heavily if there is a clear
prospect of cutting the energy bill. Thus, solar energy
in Agadir and the LEDs in Da Nang should enable these
cities to make savings on public lighting, while also
reducing emissions.

In all cases, as political stability over the long term is


rarely a given, it is an advantage if civil society actors
are involved in the approach and, more broadly, if the
general public is aware of the issues at stake. In Lima,
some districts and associations are now trying to step
in to continue the actions undertaken by the former
municipal team.
Next, local authorities have a limited control over GHG
emissions. On average, the emissions from municipal
activities and facilities account for only 1% (Paris)
to 5% (Lyon) of total emissions. By taking coercive
measures, they manage to act on 20 to 25% of the
municipal emissions, but the impact of such measures
is limited due to the effect of exogenous factors.

For the moment, climate considerations are integrated


into urban policy more as the result of one-off
opportunities rather than the rigorous application of a
strategy. This runs the risk of getting priorities wrong:
energy efficiency in buildings, for example, may be
put at the top of the agenda in order to obtain grants,
whereas transport is the highest-emitting sector. In
addition, the long-term effects are in danger of being
neglected. It would thus be useful to define a concerted
strategy, even if this evolves over time.

The congestion charge introduced in London in 2003


resulted in a 21% decrease during the first two years
and a 16% reduction of CO2 emissions, but air quality
did not improve (ADEME, 2014). In fact, the hypercentre protected by the toll represents only 1.4% of
the Greater London area: the pollutants emitted by the
surrounding area circulate due to air currents.

The flip side for committed cities


En 2015, most of the cities committed to climate
change action recognised that they are facing several
challenges and constraints.

To achieve a significant level of mitigation, cities


need to convince other public and private actors to
make voluntary commitments. In fact, over threequarters of urban emissions come from private
sources: energy consumption by businesses and the
construction industry, home heating, individual travel,
freight transport, etc. Municipalities need to become
local leaders, implying the uneasy task of redefining
their role. In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (20122013)
and Greater Lyon (20092011), this was put into
practice through large-scale consultation workshops
to encourage private initiatives, notably in partnership
with the Chambers of Commerce.

To begin with, training for municipal employees,


recruitment of experts and the creation of dedicated
departments are no guarantee of success. Often,
these new services operate in an excessively isolated
way. If technical divisions are not associated with the
approach, it is difficult to integrate climate objectives
into sectoral policies.
In addition, electoral changes may call the efforts
undertaken into question. In Lima, the mayor elected
in 2015 set aside the implementation of the climate
strategy voted by the previous team and funnelled
investments into building new infrastructure, mainly
roads. These turnarounds are not systematic: Boris
Johnson, the Greater London Conservative mayor
elected in 2008, confirmed the objective of the GHG
emissions reduction set by his Labour predecessor.
On the other hand, stability often provides an enabling
context, as in Nantes where the Socialists have had a
majority since 1989 and the ecologist councillors have
been present for over a decade.

I CARE & CONSULT AND GRET

MATTHIEU ROBIN
Project manager, Local Authorities and Urban
Development Division, AFD

Consultants, authors of the study on which


this paper is based

NOVEMBER 2015

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IRNE SALENSON
Research officer, Research and
Development Division, AFD

Finally, one of the main difficulties lies in the lack of


reliable and regularly updated scientific data and
research. Several countries, regions or cities have
observatories to monitor energy consumption and air
quality, but these are costly and local authorities in the
Global South sometimes lack resources. For example,
daily road travel stems from a group of factors that are
difficult to control simultaneously (property prices, fuel
prices, location of employment areas, etc.). Added to
this is the difficulty of disconnecting the effect of local
measures from the effect of national or supranational

QUESTION

DE DVELOPPEMENT

measures. Given the uncertainty as to the effectiveness


of a given action, local climate strategies even in
flagship cities are at present most often based on
the criteria of investment cost, financial opportunity

or visibility than on precise calculations that would


ensure a significant emission reduction. As in the case
of States, there are thus no clear signals that cities will
keep their climate promises for the year 2030.

Heating network Centre Loire In 2017

GRAPHIQUE 1. LE RSEAU DE CHALEUR URBAIN NANTAIS


Heating network
Biomass and gas
power plant

Gas power plant


Waste-to-energy
plant

Source: http://erena-nantes.reseau-chaleur.com/

REFERENCES
ADEME (2014), Les zones faibles missions travers lEurope : dploiement, retours dexpriences, valuation dimpact et efficacit du systme, June.
APEC (2013), Low Carbon Model Town, Feasibility Study for Da Nang City, EWG 20/2012A.
Gouldson A., McAnulla F. et al. (2014), The Economics of Low Carbon, Climate Resilient Cities: Lima-Callao, Peru Pontificia Universidad Catlica, University of Leeds, Universidad Nacional
Agraria La Molina, British Embassy in Lima, Inter-American Development Bank.
IPCC (2014), Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report, IPCC, Geneva.
Zheng N., Zhou N., Fino-Chen C. et D. Fridley (2012), Evaluation of Local Enforcement of Energy Efficiency Standards and Labeling Program in China, China Energy Group, Environmental
Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A QUESTION OF DEVELOPMENT is an AFD Research Department publication which presents syntheses of studies and research initiated or supported by AFD. This series aims to summarize the questioning,
the approach, the lessons and the prospects of the study presented. Thus, it intends to open new avenues for action and thinking. The analyses and conclusions of this document are formulated under the
responsibility of its author(s). They do not necessarily reflect the point of view of AFD or its partner institutions
Publication director: Anne PAUGAM Editorial director: Gal GIRAUD Agence Franaise de Dveloppement: 5, rue Roland Barthes - 75598 Paris Cedex 12
Copyright: November 2015 ISSN: 2271-7404 Conception:
Layout: Eric THAUVIN Tranlation: Gill GLADSTONE

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