ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability Southeast Asia Secretariat (ICLEI SEAS) actively took part in the Ninth World Urban Forum (WUF-9) held in Kuala Lumpur from February 07 to 14.
Organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat), WUF-9 aims to provide a platform for exchanging ideas and experiences on urbanization and the diverse challenges that it poses to cities and communities.
ICLEI SEAS, along with other ICLEI offices, hosted a parallel session titled “Advancing Climate-Resilient and Low Carbon Development in Asian Cities through Transformative Actions” last February 11. Facilitated by ICLEI Deputy Secretary-General Ms. Monika Zimmermann, the session explored synergies between climate change adaptation, mitigation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the urban context particularly SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action) through short presentations and a moderated panel discussion.
Mr. Ranell Dedicatoria, Regional Program Manager of ICLEI SEAS presented the Ambitious City Promises, a 3.5-year international project implemented by ICLEI with support from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
He explained that the project draws heavily from the experiences of Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) in implementing their climate action plan with strong citizen engagement component. This bottoms-up approach is envisioned to be replicated across selected cities in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
The session also put emphasis on four cross‐cutting issues to support and scale up climate action and implementation in cities including strengthening multilevel governance, mainstreaming gender equity in the urban context, identifying innovative financing mechanisms for cities, and linking science and policymaking.
Aside from the ICLEI-led session, ICLEI SEAS also served as resource persons in other WUF-9 side events covering various themes such as engaging the youth on climate action, forging municipal climate partnerships, building local resilience, and integrating low-carbon solutions in the building sector.
In a parallel session organized by the Global Alliance for Building and Construction (GABC), Mr. Dedicatoria shared the Accelerating climate action through the promotion of Urban Low Emission Development Strategies or Urban-LEDS II. This project is implemented by ICLEI in partnership with UN Habitat and is funded by the European Union. He highlighted that strengthening building energy efficiency is one example of low emission development actions that can be undertaken by cities.
Bogor, one of the project’s model city in Indonesia, identified green building standardization as a priority sector in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction efforts. Some activities undertaken by the city included the enactment of a Green Building Regulation and Coding and fund allocation in its annual budget to build the new energy-efficient House of Representative Building. Selected heritage buildings have also been identified for retrofitting in the next five years.
WUF-9 concluded with the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Cities 2030.
