Benefits to Local Governments

At the city level, the project will support two ‘model’ cities and four to six ‘satellite’ cities per country (Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Rwanda and South Africa). In the countries added in phase II, the project will provide capacity-building and technical cooperation to help the model cities develop Urban Low Emission Development Strategies and Action Plans. Satellite cities will benefit from capacity development opportunities and peer exchange with the model cities. In the countries already engaging in Phase I, key activities will center around supporting model cities in beginning to implement their development plans, including investment strategies and continued measuring, reporting, and verification of results.

Additional cities within the European Union will also serve as source cities by exchanging known strategies, and at the same time learning from low emission development practices in other Urban-LEDS cities within the eight project countries.

Local and national government staff and stakeholders benefit from tailor made training, study tours, workshops, and webinars. A training plan is designed in each country to meet local demands. Capacity building can be institutional in nature (e.g. involving the introduction of new staff or internal processes), or technical (e.g. project-based training and exchanges on specific technologies or solutions). In Phase I, the international networking seminar held in South Africa in 2013, brought together local government officials from all four project countries to share experiences, receive training, and learn from local experiences.

Specific Benefits Include:

Analysis: Calculating greenhouse gas emissions and identifying climate change risks and vulnerabilities

  • Quality data assists local governments decision-making towards low-emission and climate change resilient outcomes, highlights priorities and potential, and builds the case for support from potential funders

Action: Drafting and updating low-emission development strategies and integrated climate action plans

  • Comprehensive plans help drive local progress and attract external recognition and funding. These plans also achieve requirements of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) – the largest international alliance of cities and local governments with a shared long-term vision of promoting and supporting voluntary action to combat climate change and move to a low-emission, resilient society
  • Mainstreamed plans build momentum for the transformation from unsustainable to sustainable local development practices
  • Inclusive plans help strengthen a coalition of local actors taking part in climate action

Implementation: Supporting the development of bankable projects and forging connections with potential funders, especially through the Transformative Actions Program (TAP) pipeline

  • Financing climate action through direct financial support to implement small demonstration or pilot projects that help to engage local stakeholders
  • Local projects demonstrate success, deliver enhanced resilience, and reduce emissions

Capacity building: Training and peer-to-peer learning to support urban low-emission development

  • Increased awareness, enhanced understanding, and strengthened skills and relationships among municipal officials and local political leaders

Integrated reporting: Developing comprehensive reporting of climate action for public audiences

  • High-impact mitigation and adaptation measures are identified and provide information available to build the case for external project financing

The main Urban-LEDS II project outputs at a local government level include:

  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory (baseline and monitoring)
  • Climate change Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA)
  • Energy access assessment
  • Business-as-usual (BAU) emissions projection and future scenarios
  • Identify and prioritize development needs and opportunities
  • Stakeholder identification and engagement plan
  • Low Emission Development (LED) benchmarking assessment
  • Solutions for Low Emission Development identified both at sectoral and cross-sectoral level
  • Assessment of alternative Low Emission Development solutions
  • Local Urban Low Emission Development Strategy and integrated climate action plan
  • Exploration of integration of local action with NDCs and other national processes
  • Study visits and exchanges with selected European cities
  • Workshops and project briefs from experts and service providers
  • Identification of financing models and opportunities, with support to include local governments projects in the TAP pipeline
  • Meetings with possible funders/investors thanks to involvement in the TAP pipeline
  • City profiled in online platform supporting a global network of cities committed to Low Emission Development
  • Local actions, commitments, and achievements reported in the carbonn® Climate Registry (cCR), following the GCoM reporting framework
  • Verification of GHG emissions inventory and reductions resulting from implemented actions
  • Case study to showcase achievements and city results, published in the Solutions Gateway

Urban-LEDS Supports National Governments

At the national level, the project explores and supports synergies and enhanced vertical integration between different levels of government. This is done not only in national reporting on progress in achieving climate targets, as reflected in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and in the National Adaptation Plans (NAP), but also in other related policy domains such as helping participating cities access resources for climate finance.

Specific benefits include:

  • Promoting and enhancing multilevel governance to support the implementation and raise the ambition of NDCs, NAPs, and objectives of the Paris Agreement
  • Supporting the hosting of national Talanoa Dialogues to enhance collaboration and coordination among different climate actors

Urban-LEDS Delivers Global Benefits

At the global level, the project will help to improve systems that support measuring, reporting, and verification of city climate action, congruent with national-level systems under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The project will also support advocacy in favor of integrating cities and local governments into international climate frameworks. Advocacy will also help to raise the level of ambition of local, national, and global climate mitigation efforts.

Experience demonstrates the importance of high-level commitment to low emission development. Urban-LEDS works closely with elected officials to help them understand what their role is in shifting to a resilient and low-emission future for their city. The project partners with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, encouraging participating Urban-LEDS local governments to commit to this global program and share their commitment to their citizens and businesses.

Specific benefits include:

  • Sharing good practices, resources, and tools with local governments around the world
  • Supporting the implementation of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM)
  • Informing global climate change decision making processes with good quality data and lessons learned from Talanoa Dialogues