Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Inicio
Administración pública Agua y saneamiento Ciencia, tecnología e innovación Comercio e integración regional Conocimeinto Abierto Desarrollo infantil temprano Desarrollo urbano y vivienda Educación Energía Género y diversidad Impacto Industrias Creativas Medio ambiente, cambio climático y Salvaguardias Política y gestión fiscal Salud Sin Miedos Trabajo y pensiones
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ciudades Sostenibles

  • INICIO
  • CATEGORIAS
    • Vivienda
    • Desarrollo sostenible
    • Patrimonio urbano
    • Ciudades inteligentes
    • Gobernanza metropolitana
    • Economía urbana
    • Sociedad urbana
    • LAB Ciudades
    • Red de Ciudades
  • Recursos

What are we doing about climate change?

March 25, 2014 por Deja un Comentario


English | Español

We know that cities are key to tackling climate change, so how can we support them in mastering this challenge?

Here are the 3 steps that we, in the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative, take to help our partner cities find ways to reduce their carbon footprints and climate change vulnerability. At every stage, we work closely together with our colleagues in the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) sector divisions, especially the climate change and disaster risk management teams.

Xalapa cut
Informal settlements prone to landslide risk in Xalapa, Mexico (Credit: David Maleki)

1. What’s the issue?

If we want to better understand how our partner cities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability, we first need a clear picture of the challenges they face. Climate change can’t be dealt with in isolation, it is a crosscutting issue that affects and is affected by a wide range of activities. This is why we assess many different topics at the beginning of our work in a city, using a set of at least 117 indicators. Many of these indicators are closely connected to the challenges of climate change.

For example, analyzing data collected from Xalapa, Mexico, we learned that more than 40% of its citizens live below the national poverty line. What does this have to do with climate change? The statistic indicates that a considerable part of the city’s population most likely has a very limited ability to cope with the negative impacts of climate change.

Percentage of renewalable energy
Our indicator sheets provide detailed guidance on how to measure and evaluate a city’s performance on a variety of topics.

In another Mexican partner city, Campeche, we found a rather low share of renewable energy sources and green urban space. There might thus be a high potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion and for creating recreational parks that also serve as carbon sinks.

In addition to collecting sectoral data, we also consider climate change-specific indicators. For example, have climate change considerations been incorporated into the city’s planning instruments? Are greenhouse gas emissions assessed and monitored? These indicators help assess the strategic, legal, and regulatory framework needed for taking effective action. Together with the sectoral indicators, they provide a comprehensive initial assessment for our partner cities.

Nevertheless, to make informed decisions in a changing climate, more in-depth analysis is required. For this reason, we commission a set of three interrelated studies for each city that focuses on the nexus of climate change and urbanization. Firstly, we take stock of the city’s current emissions through a greenhouse gas inventory, calculate different emission scenarios, and propose measures to reduce the local carbon footprint. Secondly, we determine the vulnerability of the city to a range of natural and man-made disasters, from inland flooding to landslides and droughts, and assess how climate change might affect them. Thirdly, we develop urban growth scenarios that help avoid carbon-intensive urban sprawl and flag areas where urban growth should be restricted due to disaster risk.

In Jamaica’s tourism capital Montego Bay, we found that the current growth pattern will expose approximately an additional 5000 citizens to extreme flood events by 2030, almost ninety times more than in a smart-growth scenario.

map
Maps like this smart-growth scenario for Montego Bay help city planners to avoid carbon-intensive development and areas prone to disaster risk.

2. Where do we start?

Once the indicators and the studies have provided a clear picture of a city’s needs, our partners have to decide where to begin. This is where our Climate Change and Disaster Risk Filter comes into play. What started as a qualitative evaluation based on focus groups and expert interviews now offers a more systematic and objective approach to identify the role that each sector of the city can assume in reducing emissions and vulnerability. Together with a public opinion survey and an economic cost analysis, the filter determines in which sectors taking action is most important to spur sustainable local development.

Table
This table is an excerpt from the Risk and Adaptation dimension of our Climate Change and Disaster Risk Filter for Asuncion. The importance of the links between subtopics and hazards receives a score based on the results of the studies. Similarly, the links between subtopics and greenhouse gas emissions are evaluated.

When deciding on which areas to include in the ESCI Action Plan for Paraguay’s capital Asunción, the filter’s multi-criteria analysis put solid waste management on the agenda. While there seemed to be no significant economic incentive to improve waste collection and treatment, and citizens were rather worried about more imminent concerns like public safety, the filter found that due to significant opportunities for reducing Asunción’s greenhouse gas emissions, the sector should not be ignored. Simply capturing the biogas in the Cateura and El Farol landfills, for instance, could reduce Asuncion’s annual emissions by more than 7% by 2050, compared to a business-as-usual scenario. The Climate Change and Disaster Risk Filter helps us adopt a broader and more long-term perspective when evaluating the need to take action.

3. Get to work!

Once we know what to do and where to start, the next step is to take action. Based on the indicator assessment and the consequent prioritization, we develop Action Plans with our partner cities. These plans lay out strategies and concrete projects to overcome a city’s major development challenges. Wherever relevant, climate change considerations are either mainstreamed in sectoral activities or addressed through specific project proposals.

MdP Action PlanThe ESCI Action Plan for Mar del Plata in Argentina, for example, identifies investment needs of more than $300 million that are directly relevant in the context of climate change. The projects proposed include the installation of a 10 megawatt wind park that would reduce the city’s carbon footprint, and improvements of the drainage infrastructure that could help manage the increase in floods expected to be caused by increased rainfall and rising sea levels.

In order to ensure that the plans result in concrete actions, we support our partner cities in mobilizing the required funding. This can be very challenging, but by leveraging local resources and through partnerships with national governments, other donor organizations, and the private sector, we work to come up with viable financial solutions.

In Barranquilla, Colombia, the IDB will provide a loan of approximately $70 million through Colombia’s national development bank Findeter for a range of projects that are expected to include a control center improving the city’s ability to respond to natural disasters.

In La Paz, Mexico, we facilitated the establishment of a public-private partnership to build a 1.34 megawatt solar power plant that is expected to decrease the local government’s CO2 emissions by 40,000 tons over the life time of the project.

What challenges do we face?

We repeatedly face two major challenges while working with our partner cities on climate change.

The first is data availability. The global climate system is complex and working on climate change therefore always involves uncertainty. However, while projections exist for the global, regional, and, in some cases, even national level, data on the local impacts of climate change is harder to come by. In addition, many cities lack the statistics and databases necessary to estimate their emissions and quantify even their current disaster risk. Complete records of electricity consumption are essential for estimating greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector, statistics on vehicle and fuel types for determining emissions from transportation. For identifying areas prone to flooding, details on past inundations as well as topographic data of adequate resolution are required. In some cases, we can close gaps within the scope of our studies, in others, we have to use estimates, proxies, or substitutes to make the assessments that we need.

Also local capacity can be a challenge. Many intermediate cities in Latin America and the Caribbean have not yet integrated climate change considerations into their structures, budgets, and policy-making. To support local officials in making optimal use of the analytical tools that we provide, we try narrowing this gap by offering targeted workshops and, starting this year, continuous on-the-job training for using the tools that we provide.

Working with many different cities across the region provides us a unique opportunity to learn what works and what doesn’t. Our goal is not only to help our partner cities to take action on climate change, but also to develop and disseminate best practices for addressing urban climate change challenges that can be replicated beyond the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative. This means, of course, that we are always curious to learn more about how others deal with these issues.

If you would like to contribute to this discussion, feel free to share your experiences with us in the comment section below.


Archivado Bajo:Sin categorizar Etiquetado Con:Action Plan, asuncion, barranquilla, campeche, climate change, esci, indicators, mar del plata, methodology, Montego Bay, Xalapa

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

SIGUENOS

Subscribe

Descripción

Este es el blog de la División de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD) del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. Súmate a la conversación sobre cómo mejorar la sostenibilidad y calidad de vida en ciudades de América Latina y el Caribe.

Buscar

Entradas Recientes

  • Encuentro de autoridades regionales y locales: liderazgo local e innovación para el desarrollo territorial resiliente en América Latina y el Caribe
  • INDUVIC, inteligencia para la resiliencia en vivienda y el desarrollo urbano
  • De utopías a retos actuales: modelos de vivienda social
  • Ciudades al límite: cómo proteger a América Latina del calor extremo y los incendios
  • El HUB de ciudades, una red colaborativa para abordar los retos urbanos

¡Síguenos en nuestras redes!

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blogs escritos por empleados del BID:

    Copyright © Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo ("BID"). Este trabajo está disponible bajo los términos de una licencia Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Reconocimiento-No comercial-Sin Obras Derivadas. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) y pueden reproducirse con la debida atribución al BID y para cualquier uso no comercial. No se permite ningún trabajo derivado. Cualquier disputa relacionada con el uso de las obras del BID que no se pueda resolver de manera amistosa se someterá a arbitraje de conformidad con el reglamento de la CNUDMI. El uso del nombre del BID para cualquier otro propósito que no sea la atribución, y el uso del logotipo del BID estarán sujetos a un acuerdo de licencia escrito por separado entre el BID y el usuario y no está autorizado como parte de esta licencia CC-IGO. Tenga en cuenta que el enlace proporcionado anteriormente incluye términos y condiciones adicionales de la licencia.


    Blogs escritos por autores externos:

    Para preguntas relacionadas con los derechos de autor para autores que no son empleados del BID, por favor complete el formulario de contacto de este blog.

    Las opiniones expresadas en este blog son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del BID, su Directorio Ejecutivo o los países que representan.

    Atribución: además de otorgar la atribución al respectivo autor y propietario de los derechos de autor, según proceda, le agradeceríamos que incluyera un enlace que remita al sitio web de los blogs del BID.



    Política de privacidad

    Derechos de autor © 2025 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    En este sitio web se utilizan cookies para optimizar la funcionalidad y brindar la mejor experiencia posible. Si continúa visitando otras páginas, se instalarán cookies en su navegador.
    Para obtener más información al respecto, haga clic aquí.
    X
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT