Industrial legacy cities face unique challenges, as they transition towards vibrant, sustainable and equitable urban centers. Cities around the world can learn lessons from where these cities have been, and how they are moving forward. The new report, "Urban Transitions Alliance Roadmaps: Sustainability Transition Pathways from Industrial Legacy Cities" details four transition pathways that eleven post-industrial cities have undertaken, with implementation ideas and best practices for each. These cities are all a part of the Urban Transitions Alliance, which was built on the premise that by connecting industrial legacy cities from the US, Germany, Poland and China through their transition stories and visions of sustainable urban development, common challenges and transition pathways would emerge.
Reflecting the thematic priorities of the Alliance members, the chapters subsequently focus on challenges and solutions in the fields of Infrastructure, Energy, Mobility, and Social Transition. Each topic is explored in terms of background, barriers and opportunities related to the industrial legacy context. Transition priorities and innovative approaches from the different regions are outlined in key pathways and exemplified in case studies from the Alliance cities and districts. Some of the conditions described might apply in various degrees to cities beyond the industrial legacy context – that is why transition experiences and pathways from the Urban Transitions Alliance can be of value to cities around the globe.
Category: Cities and climate change
Addressing Urban and Human Settlement Issues in National Adaptation Plans
"The Addressing Urban and Human Settlement Issues in National Adaptation Plans Supplementary Guide aims to comprehensively address urban and human settlement issues in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) at the formulation and implementation stage.
The guide primarily targets decision-makers at the national level working on NAPs, both within and outside UNFCCC focal point ministries, while it also targets a broader set of stakeholders at the national and sub-national levels who are interested in NAPs or who may be involved in their implementation."
Mexico City: The role of public transport in tackling air pollution and accessibility
Over the last two decades, Mexico City has implemented many successful mobility projects to partly relieve its saturated public transport system and diminish air pollution generated by vehicles, while also providing more transportation options for people in peripheral locations or vulnerable situations.
The City’s decision to diversify its public transport offer and to invest in new mobility options such as BRTs and bike-sharing systems proved successful and allowed to partially relieve the pressure put on the saturated metro system. The government has also learned from its previous errors, such as the Tren Suburbano’s lack of accessibility. This project showed the importance of taking into account user accessibility and the involvement of stakeholders in a transportation project, instead of focusing mainly on feasibility and infrastructure.
Gender-inclusive climate action in cities
"In recent years, a small number of extraordinary women have emerged as key leaders on global action to tackle climate change. However, more generally, women are grossly under-represented in high-level climate negotiations; tend to be disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts; and climate solutions tend to ignore gender-specific issues, perpetuating a general bias of infrastructure and services designed predominantly for men. This report sets out proposals for how to correct these imbalances and, through focusing on an inclusive climate action approach, to ensure that investment to cut emissions and improve resilience will benefit the full diversity of urban citizens, rich and poor, men and women."
Municipal sustainable energy production and efficiency: planning and implementing innovative solutions
Energy is a major component for both local and global economic development. It is needed for transport, industrial and commercial activities, buildings and infrastructure, water distribution, and food production. Most of these activities take place in or around cities, which are on average responsible for more than 75% of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) . With their high concentration of industry, transport systems, buildings and households, municipalities consume large amounts of energy (estimated between 60 and 80% of the global primary energy) and emit between 50 and 60% of the world’s total greenhouse gases. The majority of this energy consumption goes into buildings and transport.
Despite the increasing energy demand in cities, it is at the municipal level that considerable potential to plan for and to produce energy sustainably and strengthen energy efficiency exists.
The international exchange platform Connective Cities and its initiators, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Association of Cities and Engagement Global / Service Agency Communities in One World, organized a Dialogue Event on “Municipal sustainable energy production and efficiency: planning and implementing innovative solutions” from 9 to 11 May 2016 in Würzburg, Germany to specifically look into good practices, challenges and solutions to this crucial topic.
The event took place at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg and was organized in cooperation with the City of Würzburg.
Würzburg and Mwanza share a gift from the sky
Climate change affects all cities. Anyone who wants to do something about it must reduce CO2 emissions. This can be achieved by increasingly replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies and generating solar power, for example. In Tanzania’s Mwanza, this is particularly worthwhile – and has welcome side effects.
What the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C means for Cities
"Climate science must be accessible to urban policymakers, because without them, there will be no limiting global warming to 1.5°C. In cities and urban areas, there are actions that policymakers—along with residents and stakeholders, such as civil society, the academic community, and those in business and finance—can take to help limit warming and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The effects of a city’s actions are not limited to its own borders or region, and, likewise, lessons learned in some cities and urban areas can serve as inspiration and resources for solutions in other urban areas. This Summary for Urban Policymakers is synthesised from SR1.5, the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and relevant supporting research […]. It translates the key scientific
findings and policy observations of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C for officials and policymakers of the world’s cities and urban areas."
Multi-Level Climate Governance Supporting Local Action
How can different instruments for multi-level climate governance support the realisation of local climate mitigation and adaptation potentials? This study guides through the contemporary discourse, outlines the build-up of governance capacity and presents different applications and relevant stakeholders. Thereby, it strengthens the applicability of multi-level climate governance.
Festivals as Integrative Sites Valuing Tangible and Intangible Heritage for Sustainable Development
The city is always suspended as a case of ‘heres’ and ‘elsewheres’, connected … and that is why artists may be doing a better job than southern, or northern, theorists in ‘painting’, ‘composing’, ‘dancing’ and ‘writing’ cities into being.
Festivals provide a window onto practices which integrate tangible and intangible heritage in the context of wider sustainable development challenges.
This report presents an anthology of festivals, collated by researchers and practitioners, which reveals the possibilities, promise and pitfalls of planning for culture and sustainable development.
How to get from Planning to Financing Sustainable Urban Mobility Projects?
Cities in Latin America have made a variety of advances towards designing projects that seek not only to confront the problems created in recent decades by urbanisation and the impact of climate change, but also to improve the quality of life for the whole population due to a healthier, better protected environment.
Bogotá, meanwhile, is currently drawing up a transformational sustainable mobility and urban development project with the support of the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF). It includes a 25-kilometre cycleway from the south to the north of the city, with finance being sought from a wide variety of sources. The support provided by the CFF will include the delivery of several technical studies and collaborative workshops to ensure project sustainability, capacity development and public participation.
This workshop served to promote an exchange of knowledge between cities in Colombia and Latin America which are in the process of preparing, financing or even implementing similar projects.