Date : 09 December 2019
Time: 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Organizers: Ministry of Planning & Investment, Government of Vietnam, LEDS Global Partnership and Asia LEDS Partnership (ALP)
About UN Climate Change Conference COP 25
The UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 (2 – 13 December 2019) will take place under the Presidency of the Government of Chile and will be held with logistical support from the Government of Spain.
The conference is designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP 24 in Poland last year, a key objective is to complete several matters with respect to the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The conference furthermore serves to build ambition ahead of 2020, the year in which countries have committed to submit new and updated national climate action plans. Crucial climate action work will be taken forward in areas including finance, the transparency of climate action, forests and agriculture, technology, capacity building, loss and damage, indigenous peoples, cities, oceans and gender.
The signatory countries to Paris Agreement are required to significantly scale up emission reduction efforts post 2020 in order to keep global temperature rise below 2oC above pre-industrial levels. Cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions1. Cities occupy three percent of Earth’s land but account for 60 to 80% of energy consumption. In 2018, 4.2 billion people, 55 percent of the world’s population, lived in cities. By 2050, two/thirds of human population i.e. 6.5 billion people will be urban2. In the coming decades 90% of urban expansion is expected to happen in the developing countries.
Thereby local governments are playing a vital role in the global response to climate change to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapting to the effects of a changing climate. Local & subnational governments are also being acknowledged globally for their central role in achieving climate targets of National governments. Yet achieving such outcomes can be demanding. The climate change targets have to translate/percolate to local level to achieve the National targets. National and sub-national integration is much needed than before to achieve the climate change targets of Paris agreement.
Asian countries are facing pressure due to increasing urban population, demand for energy and other infrastructure services coupled with growing risks caused by climate change impacts. Through the declaration of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) targets, climate change policies and actions, several Asian countries and cities are emerging as global leaders – showcasing vertical integration, greening the cities through sub-national level climate change planning, target setting, etc. Few such encouraging success stories from Asian region are as follows.
Vietnam:
Vietnam has set National Green Growth Action Plan (NGAAP) strategies that identify specific activities and tasks to achieve reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and that provides a clear mandate and ownership to each of the 63 provinces in the country to design their own respective Provincial Green Growth Action Plans. All Ministries, sectors and localities, People’s Committees of provinces and cities and relevant agencies are made responsible for leading the execution of tasks in the Vietnam’s plan for implementation of the Paris Agreement, as well as submitting specific solutions for implementation until 2020 and 2030.
The cost to implement the National Green Growth Strategy (VGGS) is estimated to be at least $30 billion, requiring a significant increase to current financing levels. Among other objectives such as increase green energy production and reduce GHG emissions, Global Green Growth Institute’s (GGGI) ‘Greening cities’ program also aims to increase capacities on access to climate finance and to develop green master plans and bankable projects for Vietnamese cities3.
Sri Lanka :
Sri Lanka is taking a number of measures to promote sustainable development and address the threat of climate change at the national and sub-national level. Sri Lanka has an action plan of urban and city planning, and human settlements sector which include strategy for greening cities. Sri Lanka is planning to expand the city climate action plan that is being carried out by Kurunegala city to other Sri Lankan cities. The Kurunegala city is developing city climate action plan using the Climate Resilient City Action Plan (CRCAP) methodology which is tailor made for Local Governments (LGs) and provide step by step guidance for the development of a climate resilient city action plan considering both mitigation and adaptation components. The activity is supported by Asia LEDS Partnership4’s Multi-Level Climate Governance (MLCG) Community of Practice (CoP)5.
Objective of the session :
Different National governments, local and subnational governments are at different stages of climate action implementation due to varied degrees of technical, financial and institutional capacities. It is therefore important to build capacities of National governments as well as local and subnational governments to achieve low carbon and climate resilient world in an equitable way.
In this context, it is proposed to conduct an event at the NDC partnership pavilion to showcase success stories and outcomes from the Asian countries (Vietnam, Mongolia, China and Sri Lanka) on vertical linkage / national and sub-national integration / city climate action plan / green cities through various initiatives. It is also aimed to cover processes adapted, challenges, lessons learnt in the vertical integration and climate action planning.
The Asia LEDS Partnership, through its Communities of Practices6 (CoPs) namely Mobility CoP, NDC Finance CoP, Multi-Level Climate Governance CoP is supporting national and sub-national governments to advance LEDS/NDC targets. The activities/initiatives under these CoPs and the opportunities/resources/technical support available to developing countries (including sub-national governments) through these CoPs would be promoted. The ALP CoPs are supported by NDC cluster / LEDS GP technical working groups such as Governance, Sectors (AFOLU, Energy, and Transport), Financing and Transparency.
The event would witness knowledge sharing and deliberations during the panel discussion featuring distinguished representatives from Asian government representatives.
Moderator:
- Ms. Soumya Chaturvedula, Deputy Director, ICLEI South Asia
Speakers :
- Mr Nguyen Tuan Anh, Deputy Director, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam
- Dr. Vera Rodenhoff, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Government of Germany.
- Mr. Ron Benioff, LEDS Global Partnership; International Program Manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
- Ms Le Hoang Anh, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Government of Vietnam.
- Ms. Anand Tsog, Ministry of Environment, Department of Climate change and International Relations, Government of Mongolia.
- Ms. Sun Fen, Climate Change Research Center of Beijing Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau, Government of China.
- Dr. Nurun Nahar, Deputy Chief (Programming Division), Planning Commission, Bangladesh.
- Mr. Thushara Sanjeewa Vitharana, Mayor of the Municipal Council of Kurunegala, Government of Sri Lanka.
- Ms. Susanne Pedersen, Assistant Director General for investment and policy solutions, GGGI.
Session Agenda :
- Welcome remarks (5 Min)
- Importance of integrated action to support NDC Ambition (10 Min)
- LEDS Global Partnership and the Asia LEDS Partnership – An introduction to Communities of Practice and setting the stage (5 Min)
- Panel Discussion with government representatives and experts (35 Min)
- Country and city representatives from Vietnam, Mongolia, China and Sri Lanka, speak about the initiatives in their countries towards vertical integration/city climate action planning, challenges, best practices and lessons learnt
- Experts respond to presentations and provide insights into enhancing impact of vertical-integration for climate action
- Questions from audience (5 Min)