Creating the prerequisites for integrated urban climate action in Asia-Pacific (Urban Act)

Urban-Act: Integrated Urban Climate Action for Low-Carbon & Resilient Cities

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  • Client

    Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), International Climate Initiative (IKI)

  • Country

    China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Asia Pacific Region

  • Political sponsors

    More

  • Runtime

    2022 to 2026

  • Involved

    United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC), University of Stuttgart, TU Dortmund University, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center Inc. (Clean Air Asia), Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), Chulalongkorn University, Thammasat University, Thai Meteorological Department (TMD), World Meteorological Organisation, Shanghai Urban Planning Development & Research Institute (SUPDRI)Tongji University, National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC)

  • Products and expertise

    Climate, environment, management of natural resources

Context

The Asia-Pacific region is rapidly urbanising, with more than 3 billion people expected to live in cities by 2050. This places enormous pressure on fast-growing cities to provide infrastructure and services that meet this growing demand and are both climate-sensitive and futureproof. Urban areas contribute to about 75 per cent of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and many Asian cities face severe impacts from climate change with risks for the urban population, environment and local economy.

While Urban-Act partner countries show high ambition to act within their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and urban policies, there are still barriers in place that impede cities in successfully managing the transition to a long-term, climate-friendly development path. These include ineffective horizontal and vertical coordination, limited access to climate information for evidence-based planning and the insufficient ability of urban actors to identify suitable solutions, prepare viable urban climate actions and access finance for their implementation.

Objective

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are creating better enabling conditions for the planning and implementation of evidence-based and inclusive urban climate action.

Approach

The project focuses are to:

  • improve relevant regulations, procedures and services, as well as cross-sector collaboration as a prerequisite for climate-sensitive urban planning and a systematic development of city-level capacities for project preparation and access to finance,
  • provide technical advice and knowledge transfer to cities so that they can integrate climate change evidence into spatial and urban development plans and budgets and assist city administrations in leveraging finance for project preparation and the implementation of urban climate activities and
  • facilitate regional advocacy through intergovernmental and city-to-city dialogue and foster knowledge sharing to enable the scaling-up of project results and good practices

Last update: June 2023

Additional information