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Conquering the Rising Mercury: Cities Lead the Way

 5 April 2019
 11.00 am – 12.30 pm. Registration from 10.30am, seated by 11.00am 
 URA Function Hall, 5th Storey, The URA Centre, 45 Maxwell Road, Singapore 069118
 2 BOA-SIA CPD pts, 2 SIP CPD pts, 2 SILA CPD pts

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Resources

Lecture Poster (PDF: 238 KB)

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Lecture Photos

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Synopsis

In a world where the impact of climate change is rapidly being felt, climate adaptation measures are more urgent than before. Global cities are taking innovative measures for climate adaptation, while ensuring synergy with climate mitigation initiatives. Strengthening urban infrastructure resilience for densely populated cities is a challenge that requires multi-sector collaboration. The lecture by Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40 Cities Climate Leadership, will illustrate how these efforts are manifesting across the globe, and achieving climate adaptation success.

Lecture Report

On climate change adaptation in Asia: “It’s a bit contradictory. On one hand, there are huge developments and in many things, Asia is completely driving the world. Particularly in vehicle electrification in China, it is way ahead of the rest of the world and now driving global markets. You can see real developments in the green buildings sector and some important shifts in the mindset of putting climate policy at the heart of government.

 

“But emissions are still going up and very few places in Asia are on target for that reduction to (the required) three tonnes of carbon emissions per person by 2030, and a real shift of the economy. The general direction is moving the right way, it just needs to go faster.”

 

Cities are the biggest contributor to climate change today, but they also stand to benefit the most from tackling it. This was the hopeful message from Mark Watts, the executive director of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, at a CLC lecture in April.

 

The head of this network of cities formed to address climate change called on governments to take the lead as cities generate close to 80% of global carbon emissions today. According to a United Nations 2018 report, there will be disastrous, society-changing impacts if global temperature rise is not constrained to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. Since 1980, the number of floods across the globe has also quadrupled, while the increased severity of droughts, heatwaves and water scarcity are new realities that cities face.

 

“We need planning, because there’s no way to tackle a problem that has to be dealt with over 30 or 40 years without a sober look at the direction that the whole country or the globe needs to take,” said Watts. “Cities and government have got to be much more about creating markets, setting markets rather than just correcting market failures.”

 

One example of market intervention is in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Government policy has created a public transport fleet that is powered entirely by renewable energy, and more than 70% of cars sold in the city are also electric vehicles.

 

“It is the responsibility of politicians, armed with the scientific evidence of climate change, to not sit back and accept a failed economic theory that the pure operation of markets is going to solve everything, when it quite clearly is not solving this major existential problem,” said Watts.

 

Virtually all of the political leadership in the C40’s network of over 90 cities recognise both the threats and opportunities of climate change, he added. For instance, air pollution alone reduces a city’s gross domestic product by 1%, and so does traffic congestion. Many international investors also now seek out clean cities with good public transport as well as well-designed buildings. This has led cities in the C40 to pursue low-carbon development at the centrepiece of their economic strategy. Watts added that one decisive step a city can take is to revamp their infrastructure towards renewable energy so as to reduce the search for new reserves of fossil fuels, oil and gas that the world cannot risk burning.

 

As cities pursue solutions to mitigate the toll that climate change will bring about, Watts said it was crucial to remain clear-sighted and to try fresh ideas. While the standard cost-benefit analysis does not give a true picture of green investment, traditional engineering approaches could also worsen the situation. In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, a ‘great Garuda’ seawall and land reclamation project has been proposed to solve rising sea levels and a sinking city. But much of the modelling for the project shows “disastrous effects on the environment of Jakarta”, says Watts. Not only would it create stagnant waterbodies where polluted rivers flow into, there would be mass killing of marine life. A cheaper and more effective solution was to clean the city’s rivers and introduce better wastewater management.

 

“Here we can see the problems of 20th century logic being applied to 21st century problems of climate change. In this case, extraordinary engineering will be building a bridge to disaster rather than a bridge to a positive future,” he added.

 

Beyond tackling environmental issues, it is also important to include citizens as part of “inclusive climate action”—an area much of the C40 Cities’ work is focussed on. There is a need to address poverty and inequality when tackling climate change because the richest 10% of the population are responsible for half of global emissions. Thus, policies for adapting to climate risks and mitigating for emissions should be dedicated to the most vulnerable and the poorest communities who currently suffer the most.

 

Ultimately, a public sector-led approach is best placed to break the gridlock the world is currently facing. “It’s about mindset, politics and economics, because there is no technical barrier to tackling climate change,” said Watts. “This is a crisis that’s entirely within humanity’s ability to solve.”

 

This report first appeared in the Jun 2019 Better Cities newsletter.

 

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About the Speakers

 

 

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