Green Cities, Cities and Climate Change, Inclusive Cities

Green Cities by Asian Development Bank

Green Cities

Date:	November 2012
Type:	Books
Subject:	Environment; Urban development
Series:	Urban Development Series
ISBN:	978-92-9092-896-6 (print), 978-92-9092-897-3 (web)

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http://www.adb.org/publications/green-cities 

Description

Asia's cities have been the drivers of the economy and have lifted millions out of poverty. However, the environmental consequences of this rapid development are apparent, and the citizens of Asia’s urban areas are increasingly insistent that something should be done. And there is an investment deficit in Asian cities’ infrastructure spending, mostly in environmental infrastructure, of some $100 billion per annum.

ADB's Vice President for Knowledge Management and
Sustainable Development Bindu Lohani on COP18

Asian cities can be more environmentally friendly. The resources are there to achieve this. Up to 80% of gross domestic product today comes from urban areas in Asia, and its megacities are nation-sized in population and economic product. New cities, such as the innovative "eco-towns" in Japan and "eco-cities" in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), have begun to put into action a sustainable urban development model.

 ADB's Role

To support its developing member countries in more sustainable urban development, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), under its new Urban Operational Plan, will analyze the urbanization process in the context of a country’s economic development and identify the main environmental, social, and economic development issues relating to the urban sector—as well as how ADB can add value in the sector—and the proposed areas of investment focus.

ADB will endeavor to develop longer-term engagements in focus urban regions. This will provide the opportunity to develop an integrated plan based on assessments of the environmental, social, and economic priorities for these regions. The assessment process will identify the key environmental issues of a city and prioritize investments to address them in an integrated way across infrastructure sectors to achieve a Green City. ADB, together with public and private partners, will be involved in investments in water supply, waste water, solid waste, district heating/cooling, urban transport (including roads), and energy efficiency. Under ADB’s Urban Operational Plan (2012), a number of innovative financial products are proposed in support of the transition to Green Cities. These include:

• guarantees for green investments to be used by national public or private financing institutions; and
• preferential public sector lending in support of clean energy, green transport, and green buildings.

Conclusion

Currently, the notion of Green Cities exists in the real world in the form of individual experiments with Green City technologies that are more or less equally distributed across the world’s regions. This bodes well for the scaling-up of such technologies, particularly in rapidly urbanizing Asia. The fact that the region’s population densities are expected to grow substantially over the coming decades suggests that scale economies could significantly reduce the costs of transitioning to green technologies, thus incentivizing their uptake on a large scale.

Transformation of today’s cities will not occur overnight. Global-scale application of green technologies is thus likely to be an evolution rather than a revolution. But as the rapid spread of communications-based products has demonstrated, new technologies can spread very quickly, particularly when costs fall rapidly, thus enabling scale economies in production, and hence decrease in price to levels that make such products affordable on a mass scale. Furthermore, as the continuing transformation of the older industrial urban areas of Europe and the United States has demonstrated, industrial blight and dilapidated buildings can be replaced within a few decades. This suggests a similar trajectory of transition to green city status for Asia’s urban areas, once affordable green technologies come to market and consumer preferences turn toward products based on such technologies as a result of their quality, low cost, and inherent environmental benefits.

Contents

• Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Spatial Development and Technologies for Green Cities
• Urban Metabolism and the Zero-Waste City: Transforming Cities through Sustainable Design and Behavior Change
• Energy Strategy for Green Cities
• Transport for Green Cities
• Green Cities: A Water-Secure Future
• Green City Solid Waste Management
• Financing Sustainable Cities
• Smart Concepts for Greener Cities
• References
• Conclusion: Green Cities Will Become a Reality

Inclusive Cities

Date:	April 2011
Type:	Books
Country:	India; Indonesia; Philippines
Subject:	Urban development
Series:	Urban Development Series
ISBN:	978-92-9092-293-3 (print), 978-92-9092-294-0 (web)

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Description

"...by recapturing slum rehabilitation in its different forms as a core element of an inclusive urban development agenda, this book proves relevant for both Asia and other parts of the developing world facing similar challenges of improving the lives of slum dwellers..."

— Claudio Acioly Jr., Chief, Housing Policy Section, UN-HABITAT

Slums, informal settlements, and dilapidated inner-city tenements are problems that many cities in Asia and the Pacific struggle with while their economies try to modernize and develop. Their existence puts at risk not only these economies but also poor people occupying vulnerable areas that climate change and natural disasters will only make worse. Slums are being addressed in countries in Asia and the Pacific but not yet at the rate required to create livable cities. ADB’s Strategy 2020 aims for “livable cities” and will address the range of problems resulting from rapid urbanization and the limited capacity of basic service delivery associated with present and future urban growth. To accomplish the vision of livable cities, livelihood opportunities and shelter options of incremental land and housing development are important. ADB’s developing member countries will look for viable lending opportunities to finance inclusive cities.

Contents

• Foreword
• Toward Livable Cities through Inclusive Urban Redevelopment: An Introduction
• India: ADB’s Involvement in Slum Rehabilitation
• Indonesia: Neighborhood Upgrading and Shelter Sector Project—Toward Cities without Slums
• Philippines: Strategic Private Sector Partnerships for Urban Poverty Reduction in Metro Manila
• Inclusive Urban Redevelopment: Toward Livable Cities
  
• http://www.adb.org/publications/inclusive-cities 

Cities and Climate Change

International Financing Options for City Climate Change Interventions
An Introductory Guide

This study offers a structured overview of financial instruments available to cities to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. By doing so the assignment contributes to:

• Raising awareness in relation to climate change funding for senior local government administration officials and consultants in the field of urban development and environmental management;
• Providing practical suggestions and ideas to local governments on how to use existing financial instruments as well as generating new financial resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation;
The International Financing Options for City Climate Change Interventions-An Introductory Guide is co-financed by the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) and Policy Advise for Environment and Climate Change (PAKLIM).
To download a copy of the publication, please click the following link:
International Financing Options for City Climate Change Interventions-An Introductory Guide


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Climate Change Plans and Infrastructure in Asian Cities

Climate change is an urgent issue that affects cities and its people across the globe. Growing cities in Asia are faced with one of the biggest environmental challenges in urban development. Unstable weather patterns, immense flooding, landslides and extreme temperature changes are but some of the results of climate change that threaten socio-economic and environmental sustainability.
The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) in collaboration with the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), conducted a survey focusing on the following three main questions:
1. Is climate change given priority in policies, plans and investments of Asian cities?
2. Where does the focus lie in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation?
3. Are there already infrastructure investments made or planned in relation to climate change?
The objectives of this baseline survey were to determine:

• The status of climate change and other relevant plans for Asian cities and their focus on climate change adaptation versus mitigation
• Where demand for climate change related infrastructure projects exists, based on these plans
• The role of development agencies and other development partners in prioritizing, planning and investing in urban infrastructure
To download a copy of the report, please click on the following link: Climate Change Plans and Infrastructure in Asian Cities

• http://www.cdia.asia/knowledge-materials/cities-and-climate-change

Competitive Cities in the 21st Century: Cluster-Based Local Economic Development

Date:	October 2011
Type:	Books
Country:	Bangladesh; India; Sri Lanka
Subject:	Urban development
Series:	Urban Development Series
ISBN:	978-92-9092-430-2 (print), 978-92-9092-431-9 (web)
Price:	US$40.00 (paperback)

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Description

Economic challenges in developing Asian countries have become more complex: urban populations are growing at great cost to the environment, climate change has increased risks of natural disasters, and income gaps within and between developing countries are widening. These factors threaten the sustainable growth and development of urban areas, the drivers of Asia’s economy. A strategic approach for inclusive growth is needed. The City Cluster Economic Development approach provides a strategic framework and a set of analytical tools, which governments, businesses, and communities can use to support the inclusive and sustainable development of competitive urban economies in Asia. Said approach was developed and tested by the Asian Development Bank to improve the basis for integrated planning and development of urban regions in Asia and the Pacific. It also helps urban managers and other city stakeholders identify action plans and determine priority investment areas.

Contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Contributors of Case Study Reports for the Asian Development Bank’s RETA 6337
• City Competitivenes sand Cluster-Based Economic Development
• Factors Shaping the Spatial Agglomeration of Asian Cities
• Emerging Factors Accelerating Urban Economic Growth
• The Cluster: Theory, Analysis, and Experience in Agglomerated Asian Cities
• Building Competitive Local Economies: Approach and Analytical Steps
• Cluster-Based City Economic Development in Bangladesh
• Cluster-Based City Economic Development in India
• Cluster-Based City Economic Development in Sri Lanka
• Insights Gained from the Three Country Case Studies
• A New Paradigm of Local Economic Development for Growing Asian Cities
• References
• http://www.adb.org/publications/competitive-cities-21st-century-cluster-based-local-economic-development

Cities and active inclusion: quality of social services and the social economy

Social Economy

Social economy refers to the so-called ‘third sector’, meaning that it is between the private/business sector and the public/government sector. Social economy includes organisations such as NGOs, cooperatives, mutual societies and charities. These are also called social enterprises: enterprises that apply market-based strategies to achieve social purposes.

Social economy can lead to new strategies, ideas and organisations that meet social needs of all kind, such as training, education, health and social inclusion. For this reason, social economy is often associated to the concept of social innovation.

Social economy is important for several reasons:

a. It creates jobs for people at risks of social exclusion/with a low employability profile. To this end, social economy supports the social and employment integration of certain categories of people that find it difficult to be integrated through more mainstream pathways;

b. It provides social services that respond better to the real needs of people (for example the provision of services is more flexible and better tailored to the real needs of users);

c. It creates jobs and growth: social economy enterprises represent 2 million enterprises (i.e. 10% of all European businesses) and employ over 11 million paid employees (the equivalent of 6% of the working population of the EU): out of these, 70% are employed in non-profit associations, 26% in cooperatives and 3% in mutual societies.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/social-economy/

The latest report by EUROCITIES is called ‘Cities and active inclusion: quality of social services and the social economy’. The report provides an analytical overview of trends, challenges and innovative practices on active inclusion at local level in 10 cities throughout the European Union. It is based on 10 research reports produced by 10 cities. 5 cities looked at the issue of providing quality social services (Barcelona, Birmingham, Brno, Copenhagen, and Sofia), and 5 cities focused on the role of the social economy in supporting active inclusion (Bologna, Krakow, Lille Métropole-Roubaix, Rotterdam and Stockholm).

Cities reported a number of challenges in delivering quality social services:

budget cuts and financial constraints;

legislation on ensuring quality standards that is not always adequate to measure the real quality of social services;

ensuring that social services employees fully understand quality criteria and indicators; and

recruiting and retaining a quality workforce in social services.

Cities reported a number of challenges in supporting the social economy:

dealing with budget cuts in public administration;

improving the financial sustainability of social economy organisations;

dealing with public procurement rules; and

raising awareness on the added value of social economy.

Citizens with multiple disadvantages and citizens at risk of social exclusion

Cities are dealing with citizens who have multiple disadvantages (homeless, people with disabilities, low skilled, migrants), as well as with new groups of people becoming increasingly at risk of social exclusion (ethnic minorities, elderly, single parents). Cities’ trends that have been observed in delivering social services are improving coordination, decentralisation, personalisation of services, outsourcing to social economy associations and taking a preventative approach. The social economy is supported through financial means as well as legislative measures which make it possible for these associations to win public tenders for delivering social services. Ensuring the delivery of quality social services and supporting the social economy pose challenges for cities. Budget cuts in public administrations, coupled with an increasing number of people in need of active inclusion are stretching cities’ capacity to deliver quality social services and to support the social economy.

Social economy in cities is in need of highly qualified staff

Other challenges identified by cities are the sustainability of social economy initiatives, too rigid and formal national legislation on quality for social services, the complex rules on public procurement as well as the recruiting and retaining of highly qualified staff in the social sector. However, cities have also put in place and are planning several solutions to deal with the challenges of ensuring quality social services, such as creating quality standards that better reflect the users’ needs, training employees in understanding quality issues, and improving working conditions of social workers. For the social economy, cities are helping to increase the business skills of people working in this sector, to raise awareness on the added value of social economy and to introduce social clauses in public procurement regulations for awarding tenders for delivering social services.

Click here to download the publication 'Cities and active inclusion: quality of social services and the social economy – Key lessons from cities'.

Source: EUKN

Reference material

• Full report
  17 May 2011, pdf, 926KB

  
  

  
  

Street Smart

Every Thursday afternoon, the sidewalk along one block of Montauk Avenue in Brooklyn, N.Y., is lined with books on portable shelves, games, art supplies and computers, all arranged on a row of blankets. A passerby might mistake this scene for a gathering of street vendors. But a closer look reveals a different mode of exchange.

Children from this low-income neighborhood huddle around makeshift craft centers and work stations. Some are painting, drawing, making puppets or simply talking among themselves. Many are reading. Others play on the computers, as friends peer over their shoulders, waiting for a turn.

The outdoor classroom is one of a small but tenacious number of enterprises called street libraries. Even on the hottest summer afternoons, children from surrounding blocks wait anxiously for the familiar white van to roll down Montauk. Any resemblance to the traditional bookmobile ends as youngsters begin helping the volunteers set up the books and computers on the sidewalk.

The street library is the brainchild of the Fourth World Movement, an international antipoverty organization founded in France by Father Joseph Wresinski in 1958. During the 1960s, a group of Fourth World volunteers settled on New York's Lower East Side to study poverty firsthand, offer assistance and get to know the families in low-income neighborhoods.

In the 1970s, "gentrification" forced many of these families out of their homes and into new ones, sometimes far across town. Eager to stay in touch, the volunteers often visited their friends' new homes, bringing books and games to entertain their children. As the trips became more frequent and the activity increased, the volunteers began moving the books out of the apartments and onto the sidewalk to accommodate more children.

For more than 15 years, street libraries have been a mainstay in neighborhoods of New York, Boston and New Orleans, instilling pride, creativity and enthusiasm for learning in as many as 350 disadvantaged children at the three sites every week.

A Culture of Inclusion

The Fourth World street library operates on the firm belief that all children can learn in the proper environment and that everyone -- irrespective of their race, culture, gender, religion or socioeconomic status -- has something to offer.

"We try to reach out to all the kids in the neighborhood, especially those who have the most difficulty," explains program coordinator Denis Cretinon. "These are the children who perhaps do not know how to read and are ashamed of it. Because of this, they're scared to come out and join us."

The volunteers make it a point to knock on all doors. Sometimes no one answers or parents politely decline the invitation. The volunteers will try again in subsequent weeks, believing that it's just a matter of time before they establish the necessary trust. Neighborhood resident Zena Grimes was skeptical at first.

"We were living in a shelter in Harlem," she says, "and a couple of my kids heard about the street library and would ask me if they could go and play on the computer and meet the other kids. At first, I said no. I wasn't going to trust [the volunteers] with my kids. But I met some of them, and I came to watch what they were doing. I thought my kids would get a lot out of it."

Parents who are new to the project sometimes ask why it bothers with those families that have reputations for drug use or violence. Volunteers respond that to avoid certain households would break the fundamental rule that no child be excluded. Such an open environment, they acknowledge, can initially create problems, such as teasing and bullying among children from different home situations or segments of the neighborhood. But an inclusive street library generally fosters cooperation, not conflict.

"We always ask parents what else their kids get out of the street library," Cretinon says. "Almost always, they tell us it teaches them how to get along. Even after we leave for the afternoon and don't come back for another week, parents tell us that the kids don't fight like they used to."

"Is It Street Library Day Today?"

"The massive school failure of children in extreme poverty is often attributed to lack of interest on the part of the parents," explains Bruno Tardieu, associate director of the Fourth World Movement. "This is a view which tends to reinforce the impasse between parents and the school system. Children have difficulty learning if they see that the different partners in their education are not working together."

Every Thursday afternoon, just after the school day ends, two Fourth World volunteers park the van and, with the help of parents and children who have been anxiously awaiting their arrival, begin to lay down the blankets and set up the books, computers and art equipment. A street library session usually lasts about two hours. The first hour is devoted to reading. Volunteers try to bring books that the kids can relate to but that, at the same time, open up new worlds. The children will read to themselves or to each other or ask a volunteer to read to them.

The second hour is reserved for special projects -- painting, drawing and interactive games, for example -- often revolving around a specific theme or topic, such as "respect" or "music."

One of the most popular recent programs at the Brooklyn site focused on "communication." The children sent messages via the Internet to peers in the New Orleans and Boston street libraries and made greeting cards to send to their counterparts in several European cities. By emphasizing the many modes of communication, the volunteers believe this and similar projects lessen the isolation often felt by disadvantaged children, removing a key obstacle on the way to their becoming better learners.

After the street library ends for the day, the volunteers' work, in many ways, has just begun. During the session, they monitored the activities and the progress of the children. They will later transcribe their thoughts in journals and share information with parents and other volunteers. These journals and discussions have formed the basis for Fourth World Movement books and reports that are distributed to educators and other nonprofit organizations. A constant and free-flowing exchange of information promotes flexibility in the street library program, allowing volunteers to, in the words of one worker, "create the road as they walk."

The cooperation of parents and other neighborhood institutions remains central to the street library's success. The computers will work only if a family agrees to run an extension cord into an electrical outlet in their apartment. The generosity of local churches and apartment building superintendents is crucial when adverse weather forces the street library to move indoors. Parents and neighbors offer support and advice as the children work on their reading, painting or drawing.

The Fourth World Movement would like to develop informal partnerships with local schools. However, school officials, perhaps suspicious of a "guerrilla" operation like the street library, haven't been as responsive as volunteers had hoped.

"The public school system is very bureaucratic and politicized," says Cretinon. "It's a shame, because we know things about these children and their ability to learn that their schools probably do not. It is also important to establish links between children who participate in the program and other children."

To that end, the Fourth World Movement has produced a story collection entitled Children of Courage that teachers can use to introduce their students to children whose lives were changed by the street library. Supportive parents can also help bridge the gap between the street library and schools by reporting to teachers what they have observed about their children and their ability to learn and communicate.

"The street library is the reason my younger kids learned how to use a computer," says Zena Grimes. "It makes learning fun and important. After it leaves, all the time I hear one thing from my kids: 'Is it street library day today? When is it coming to the neighborhood again?'"

For more information about street libraries or other Fourth World Movement programs, call (301) 336-9489.

• http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-17-spring-2000/street-smart

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