Photo: World-Bank-Group-President-Jim-Yong-Kim

World Bank announces new Low-Carbon Livable Cities (LC2) Initiative

16 October 2013

by Richard Forster

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has announced a new Low-Carbon Livable Cities (LC2) Initiative to support developing country cities around the world in their efforts to plan low-carbon, climate-smart development and get finance flowing.

“Climate change poses one of the toughest challenges facing us today,” said Jim Yong Kim. “It’s an economic issue that has the potential to put prosperity out of the reach of millions of people. Cities offer a unique opportunity to tackle climate change. There are many cities in the developing world that want to take a climate-smart development path, and that is where our new initiative comes in.”

The initiative, which aims to reach 300 of the largest developing country cities in the next four years, offers a comprehensive suite of tools and activities tailored to cities’ specific needs and level of progress on their climate-smart development path, ranging from greenhouse gas inventories and assessments to low-carbon investment planning and financing solutions.

A recent analysis by the World Bank found that only about 20 percent of the world’s 150 largest cities have even the basic analytics needed for low-carbon planning. A critical part of the Low-Carbon Livable Cities Initiative is to build that evidence base, together with partners including the C40 network, ICLEI, WRI and others, by rolling out the Global Protocol for Community Scale Emissions, a new and comprehensive methodology that quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions associated with economic activity and consumption occurring in a city.

The World Bank and its partners are developing an accreditation programme to train city officials and private sector professionals to conduct greenhouse gas inventories using this methodology. Those inventories will provide cities with a snapshot of their emissions profile and enable them to identify the mix of policies and investments that will help them achieve their full emissions reduction potential.

“For municipal governments, finding their way to a low-carbon development path is a question of competitiveness, growth and public health,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. “Applying a climate lens to cities’ development plans means that energy savings will free up budget for other investments, resilient infrastructure will withstand the forces of nature, and citizens will have cleaner air to breathe.”

Research by the World Bank of the 500 largest cities in developing countries shows that only a small percentage are deemed creditworthy, about 4 percent are creditworthy in international financial markets and 20 percent are creditworthy in local markets.

In this context, the World Bank and its partners have designed a City Creditworthiness Program to help city financial officers conduct thorough reviews of their municipal revenue management systems and take the first steps to qualify for a rating. The inaugural session of the City Creditworthiness Program is taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, between 14-19 October 2013 and additional trainings are planned in Korea, India, and Colombia.

  • Reuters Automotive
https://cities-today.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dawn-crop.png

Technology inclusion goes beyond internet access in LA

  • Reuters Automotive