reISAP 2023
International Forum for a Sustainable Asia Pacific

LEVERAGING CITIES TO GENERATE SYNERGIES IN ASIA
AND THE PACIFIC
Curt Garrigan
Chief, Sustainable Urban Development Section
ESCAP

Cities in Asia-Pacific – key facts and opportunities forsynergies>50% of the Asia-Pacific~70%

99 of the top 100

7 in every 10of the region’s
population lives in urban
cities facing
cities in Asia
areas and the number is emissions come environmental risks suffer from poor
from urban areas
expected to increase
are in the region
air quality

Cities amid crises and changing demographics

Cities and progress against SDGs
From ESCAP 2023 SDG Progress Report

From UN Climate SDG Synergies ReportCities and synergies
From UN Climate SDG Synergies ReportCities are critical to achieving sustainable
development….yet, multiple and interlinked crises are creating significant challenges to achieving the SDGs andrealizing potential for local climate action
UN Climate SDG Synergies Report Recommendation: ‘Treat cities, sites of major population growthand expansion of economic activities, as an opportunity for focusing on climate and developmentsynergies.’
The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities Report 2023 Report, entitled “Crisis ResilientUrban Futures”, developed by ESCAP, UN-Habitat and partners, offers a forward-looking
agenda to shape post-pandemic pathways for a sustainable urban recovery.
Scan to download

The report identifies four key areas:Why Cities and Climate Action in Asia-Pacific?

Context

Current stateTools andtargets

Most cities located inclimate vulnerable areas,such as low elevation
coastal zones, valleys, etc.

Most emissions from citiesin Asia
predominately fromtransportation & energy

Asia-Pacific economicimpact of climate isincreasing in cities prone toloss and damage

Lack of NDC
localisation, vertical andcross municipal climate
cooperation

Climate action has positive
co-benefits
to the well-being and healthof society, the city and its
surrounding area

Addressing urban
emissions (transport, waste,construction, etc.)↓ reduces pollution↑ improve respiratory andoverall healthUrban Air Pollutionsynergies with healthy environments and climate
Costs of Life: 5 years per person
Over 4 billion people in the region are exposed to levels of
air pollution deemed unsafe to human health

6.5 million people die annually from exposure to poor airquality. 70% of air pollution related death occur in Asia andthe Pacific.
92% of people living in the Asia and the Pacific (or 4 billionpeople) are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution.
30 Most Polluted Cities in the world amid a high rate ofurbanization

Cities in Asia and the Pacific are disproportionally impacted by air pollution. They were estimated to have the highest
death rates associated with exposure to PM2.5.

Often, vulnerable people include women, children, the elderly and the poor, who have limited access to health services
are exposed to the highest levels of air pollution.

Clean air solutions and climate benefits

Clean Air

Regional Action Programme on Air Pollution (RAPAP)• First regional action programme negotiated and adopted bygovernments• To promote science-based and policy-oriented cooperation
for improved air quality management• To establish an open regional platform for the exchange ofinformation and best practices• Involved 6 subregional and thematic consultations,
technical projects and 9 intergovernmental consultations

Clean Air

Basic Urban Services- links to global challenges
Access to basic urban services contributes to a healthy
environment and can generate sustainable development
benefits:•

Clean Energy (household/cooking)•Urban Mobility and Transport•••

Access to employment, education, health services, etc.

•

Opportunities for reduced emissions

Green and Open Space•

Loss of biodiversity•

Lack of recreation spaces for healthy living•

Urban Heat Island effect and more emissions

Solid Waste Management•

Plastic pollution is a significant issue in the Asia-Pacific region, mostgenerated from urban land sources•Underdeveloped waste management systems may be responsible
for as much as 60 per cent of global plastic waste leakage.

•Some municipalities spend up to 40% of budget on waste
management (mostly collection and transport to landfill)Leveraging benefits from
SDG localization
Enhance multi-level governance andurban policy coordination

Local climate action plans; Local Resilience and Recovery
Strategies and Local air pollution action plans

Facilitate Multistakeholder and private sector
partnerships for financing municipal SDG priorities

VLR as a practical tool for monitoring SDG localization

Integrating National and Local Review of theSDGs

Fill information gaps

Enhance vertical andhorizontal coordination

Broaden stakeholder
engagement

Annual VNR-VLR sessions at the Asia Pacific Forum on
Sustainable Development

Strengthen legitimacy of local
follow-up and review of theSDGs

Crisis Resilient Urban Futures•

Create a policy environment for transformative and resilient urban planning, enabled
by multilevel governance•Ensure the provision of capacity-building and coordination for effective urban
planning and local action•Develop holistic housing, urban planning and disaster-risk management policies,
strategies and regulations to address the affordable housing crisis in cities•Promote integrated, compact, mixed-use neighbourhoods and cities supported bypublic transport and active mobility to meet climate and sustainability targets

Compact, low-carbon development enhancing theefficiency, liveability and sustainability of cities

Greener and more carbon neutral cities andneighbourhoods

Harmonize and enhance nature into cities to address
climate, clean air and biodiversity crisis

Disaster risk reduction for urban areas, especiallycoastal communities

Crisis Resilient Urban Futures•Integrate urban communities as key actors to build resilience against climate and othershocks•

Deploy innovative urban adaptation pathways to address existing and new climate risks•

Enhance data collection and local evidence to inform and accelerate climate action incities•

Shift to low-carbon sources to tackle the urban energy crisis•

Provide platforms for monitoring, reporting, verifying and integrating multilevel climate
actionNumber of climate activities that correspondto each of the 17 SDGs acrossdifferent regions.

Public health and mobility
factors intersect withdecarbonization goals
Nature-based solutions forinfrastructure and address
climate and clean air targets

Climate crisis is heavily
intertwined with the global
biodiversity crisis, impacting
vast food and material
production systems

Crisis Resilient Urban Futures•

Develop people-centred national smart-city policies as an enabler of inclusive andsustainable urban development•

Enhance capacities of governments at all levels to design and implement inclusive
digital strategies with a clear resilience mindset•

Promote citizen engagement and multi-stakeholder partnerships for digitaltransformations in cities

Need to overcome social, economic and technologicalinequalities which limit access to urban employment,
education, health information, wider urban networking
Utilize smart and digital innovation for more
efficient management of traffic, energy use, safety(with road safety, air quality and climate benefits)

Opportunities for merged digital data to support
extension of services

Crisis Resilient Urban Futures
•
•
•
•
•

Expand, diversify and increase municipal revenue collection to stimulate a local
economic recovery
Establish a transparent framework for intergovernmental transfers for greater
economic resilience against future shocks
Ensure that land-based financing instruments are aligned with the development ofcompact polycentric urban areas
Create more stable and predictable policy, regulatory and incentive frameworks toenhance private sector investment for an urban economic recovery
Promote enabling environments to facilitate climate responsive urban finance andmunicipal finance instruments in support of local climate action

Loss of tax revenue and expenditure on pandemic response
further strained the financial resources of cities, exacerbating
budget deficits.
Governments ‘rebalancing’ following diversion of resources
and funds towards public health emergency, reducing theallocation of grants and transfers for urban development.

Cities Climate Finance remains limited and often inaccessible
to cities needing it most (emerging secondary cities)
Targeted incentives, such as tax breaks, grants or subsidies,can encourage private sector investments in health care, digital
infrastructure, renewable energy and urban development.

Crisis Resilient Urban Futures

THANK YOU
Follow us:

unescap

unitednationsescap

www.unescap.org

unescap

unescap

united-nations-escap

For more information, please visit the Environment and Development Division webpage
https://www.unescap.org/our-work/environment-development and contact us as: ESCAP-EDD-EDPS@un.org