CB BureauWhy
urban CDMs is big news for city planners as well as climate campaigners?
It is perfectly understandable
that many passionate people working in development and sustainability remain
downbeat about the glacial speed of progress to arrive at a meaningful global
deal to tackle climate chaos.
Yet,
it is opportune to revisit some of the key agreements that arose from COP17 in
Durban – and dare to hope. Capturing a lot of the headlines at the time in late
2011 was the much-vaunted Green
Climate Fundthat will help deliver financial support to developing countries to reduce
emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. But just as
interesting for city leaders is the roll-out
of a UN approved ‘urban CDM’ (Clean Development Mechanism) that will ensure
large-scale low-carbon urbanization projects can now go ahead in developing
countries. Take for example the Delhi
metro rail scheme, which aims to deliver lower emissions through modern public
transport in more compact cities, whilst improving the quality of life for
India’s citizens through quicker, cheaper commuting.
At
a time of rapid urbanization, these urban CDMs are a great reason to be a
little less upset with carbon offsets (noting that the naysayers argue it is only
a temporary fix by which over-consuming developing countries buy their way out
of problems arising from fossil fuel-dependent lifestyles).
Done
in the right way, these urban CDMs can both usher in a bold new era of
public-private collaboration and accelerate the empowerment of municipal
leaders.
In
addition to ensuring that these schemes actually deliver the lower emissions
they promise, it is also vital to success that any new
forms of urban PFI or PPP are established in a way that ensures strong
governance by city mayors and robust scrutiny by the general public. That is,
everyone should benefit from the success, the local poor and big industry
alike.
If
local people feel these urban CDMs are not helping them achieve their life
aspirations – to feed their families, to work for a better future – this makes
these places less, not more, resilient. And if this proves to be the case, then
progress against the promised emissions cuts is put in jeopardy. People may go
live somewhere else, decide to boycott, or do something a little bit more
drastic.
So,
let us not pass up this golden opportunity. We can do this by ensuring the
intended beneficiaries are involved as much as possible in the decisions on how
their settlements are to be developed. It would be lazy and foolish to assume
this would be the case. Decades of learning from ill-fated Big Oil explorations
in the developed teach us this.
About
Philip Monaghan
Philip
Monaghan is Founder & CEO of Infrangilis.
He is a writer and strategist in the fields of economic development and
environmental sustainability. Philip’s forthcoming book How Local
Resilience Creates Sustainable Societies will be published by Earthscan on
27 February 2012.