Climate Resilient and Inclusive Cities

With urban growth averaging 4,4% annually, Indonesia experiences the highest rate of urbanisation in Asia (higher than in India and China). It is predicted that 68% of the population will live in cities in the next ten years. Urban population densities exceed 15,000 habitants/km² in cities like Jakarta and more than 30,000 habitants/km² in some inner-city areas. Cities are hard hit by climate change, although they could be seeds for solutions. Cities like Jakarta are sinking below sea level and could be expected to sink by 2050. Countries like Vietnam (36% of urban population) and the Philippines (45%) concentrate on large urban areas, with fast-growing centres. Urban areas host most of the vulnerable populations, as well as vital and social infrastructure, and local governments have increased pressure to develop services, infrastructure, and employment.
Hundreds of millions of people in poorer urban areas are hit by pockets of deprivation, due to lack of basic infrastructure (such as water and sanitation). Problems will worsen when the most fragile territories could be affected by rising sea levels, flooding, landslides, toxic peaks of air pollution, typhoons alerts, storms, or periods of more extreme heats and droughts related to climate change. Cities and local governments are increasingly recognized as key actors in addressing climate challenges and the SDGs.
The project fully meets the global objective to promote sustainable, green, and inclusive urban development, and to promote climate-resilient and inclusive cities. It aims to foster and strengthen partnerships among Local Authorities in accordance with the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development. The project proposes capacity building and transfer of tools in the areas of disaster risk management, climate/sustainable use of resources, and water/sanitation. Peer to Peer exchanges will be organized for both city leaders and urban practitioners. It also proposes to build up and extend partnerships, to upscale cooperation, to sustain cooperation networks, as well as to maximize the impacts of activities in a unique, innovative and original manner.

Goals

• Improve resilience and greening of cities: The project is geared towards sustainable and climate resilience policies and action and is promoting a shift towards sustainable and green urban development.
• Urban governance: It will address the question of governance to reach sustainable urban development through capacity building and training materials on good governance.
• Ensure social inclusiveness of cities: The CRIC project will strengthen and support social policies and social inclusion of the poorer population. Engagement will be achieved through the involvement of civil society. Improvements in water and sanitation in particular, have a large social impact especially on the marginalized and vulnerable groups, such as rural migrants. The project will also have a highlight on culture through exhibitions.
• Improve prosperity and innovation in cities: The sustainable action plans for environment, climate, water, sanitation, waste and a sustainable use of resources will trigger local investment, local economy and schemes for the emergence of a local circular economy, waste to energy plants or other investments which can be beneficial for jobs and innovation.

The project will have a substantial impact on the achievement of SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities. It supports triangular cooperation through which exchange of knowledge and capacity building among countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Nepal and Bangladesh will take place with European counterparts. The project will support job creation by the promotion of green jobs and a circular economy.

Objectives

Considering the urgency of the climate resilience issues, United Cities and Local Government Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) initiated the Climate Resilience Inclusive Cities (CRIC) Project along with its partners All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG), Pilot4Dev, Université Gustave Eiffel, ACR+ and ECOLISE. It is a five (5) years project with overall objectives to propose a long lasting and unique cooperation through a triangular cooperation between cities and research centres in Europe, South Asia (India, Nepal, Bangladesh), and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand). The Project will also contribute to sustainable integrated urban development, good governance, and climate adaptation/mitigation through long lasting partnerships, and tools such as sustainable local action plans, early warning tools, air quality and waste management & Circular Economy in consultation with experts’ panels.

Project Actions Since January 2020

The CRIC Project started on 2nd January 2020 and it was kicked off in Jakarta, Indonesia on 29th January 2020. The delegation from AIILSG was headed by Mr. Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General, AIILSG along with Devarshi Pandya, CFO; Kamlesh Kumar Pathak and K Vishnu Mohan Rao. Over the next six months various events were planned under the CRIC project and several events such as stakeholder meeting, seminars, expert meetings have taken place.
One of the foremost events that took place in lines with the CRIC Project, the Global Launching of United Network of Circular Cities at the 10thWorld Urban Forum, Abu Dhabi on 10th February 2020. The event aimed at creating polycentric and multilevel governance at the national, sub-national and local level towards the circular economy and sustainable development. The program promotes the creation of multilevel partnerships with suitable enablers towards policy level action and financial mechanism trough private sector cooperation. The event promoted the concept of resources management and circular economy through exchange of resources through a network of cities.
Another Circular Economy Event was conducted on 5th March 2020 at the 5th South Asian Cities Summit hoisted by AIILSG in Goa, 4th – 6th March 2020. The thematic track was conducted to involve the Municipal Corporations and Boards of South Asia who were represented at the conference. The discussion was on Creating Circular Economy towards Shaping Resource Efficient, Sustainable & Circular Cities. In this session of discussion, the focus was on Marine Circular Economy and Coastal Cities and Circularity in Fashion Industry.
Besides the seminars, CRIC conducted an e-FGD i.e. a Focus Group Discussion with the stakeholders over a web-based platform. The discussion brought about valuable information also in terms of the current situation and the readiness of each city, in particular, their commitment and agenda.

• For the CRIC project to succeed, its implementation will be through collaboration of national policies of Indonesia’s National Policies (NDCs) where climate resilience and DRR issues has been placed as one of national development priority; it aimed to reduce potential economic impact due to climate risk. The project would assist in monitoring or measuring the level of climate resilience and city inclusiveness with SDGs and development parameters through various planned activities.
• Role of Bappeda (Regional Planning Department of Indonesia) and local government official is a key factor, in particular, to prepare a climate action plan to count the potential economic losses as it relates to the local investment, and efforts to avoid the potential losses.
• Bappeda at city level will demand the policymakers to generate macro action into micro action. In terms of that, the EU is interested to learn from UCLG ASPAC and cities through sharing information and knowledge. Project team & cities can work closely, share information and experience, and support the project which can run and meet the existing targets.
• During the urban analysis, the CRIC project team will discuss and assist the city team with regard to the preparation of the project implementation policy with the RPJMD, and with the RPJMN as well. The CRIC Project team will support the policies taken by the City Government.

On 12th June 2020, the first expert meeting took place. Experts from Indonesia and Brussels joined the meeting.

Allied Activities

As per the requirement of the project, AIILSG who is representing South Asia has recommended the names of six experts to join the expert panel of the CRIC Project. These are eminent experts on various sectors of sustainability and the environment. Dr Anil Kumar Gupta from National Institute of Disaster Management; Dr Suresh Jain, IIT Tirupati; Prof S K Singh, Delhi Technical University; Dr Deepali Sinha Khetriwal, Sofies Consultancy and Abhisekh Kumar Mishra, IISER Mohali.
Besides this, a GHG Accounting and Carbon Offset Proposal for the Climate Resilient and Inclusive Cities (CRIC) Project has been designed to accommodate and offset the emissions generated while undertaking the project activities.
The proposal has tried to understand all the variables involved with the project and has brought a cross-sectoral calculation and analysis method to account as much as possible. The proposal follows the standards proposed by the Green House Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, March 2004) developed by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and World Resources Institute (WRI). The standards are usually for corporates or businesses developing a GHG inventory but can be extended to any operation that involves the emission of GHG.
The emissions for the CRIC project will be considered under two scopes of calculations. Scope1 is on direct emissions that can be considered directly due to project operations and Scope 2 is indirect emissions such as power consumption.
The emissions sources are also divided into two categories, stationary and mobile sources. This broad classification will help us to understand the sources of emissions properly and create transparency and clarity in calculations.
This proposal also defines the options and opportunities available for the CRIC Project to make its Carbon-offset plans. A proper description of the options has been provided with their pros and cons.