11 cities kick off climate budgeting pilot

A new collaborative project aims to help global cities reduce their carbon emissions by managing and reporting on climate measures as rigorously as financial spending.

C40’s Climate Budget Pilot is led by the City of Oslo, which was one of the first cities in the world to introduce climate budgeting in 2017. Other participating cities are Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, Milan, Montreal, Mumbai, Stockholm, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Tshwane.

Climate budgeting, which is not the same as carbon budgeting (a statutory cap on total greenhouse gas emissions over a time period), is a governance tool that integrates climate considerations into all city decisions across departments. It outlines the targets and measures to cut CO2 emissions as well as costs, lines of responsibility and how much emissions will be reduced. Departments must report back regularly on progress to ensure goals remain on track.

“A climate budget is a direct operationalisation of a city’s Climate Action Plan and strengthens the chances of meeting its targets through transparency on actions and mainstreaming climate into the core of administration and policies,” said Catrin Robertsen, who is leading the pilot at C40 and was a technical advisor on climate budgeting to the City of Oslo.

In Oslo, the climate budget is managed by the city’s finance department, integrated and running simultaneously with the annual financial budgeting process. The governance system means the city council can only approve spending plans that are in line with the climate strategy and carbon reduction goals. Oslo is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95 percent by 2030 from 2009 levels.

Scaling the process

Using Oslo’s climate budgeting process as a starting point, the pilot will look to define what can be replicated and adapted for other cities of various sizes and at different stages.

Robertsen said: “We know that we need data and clear governance structures. We will spend this next one and a half years gathering experiences to see whether there are different ways of implementing the climate budget. But overall, the idea of climate budgeting as a governance tool is something that can be applied in every city.”

The first phase is planned for 2021-2022, with possible continuation in 2023-2024.

Robertsen said holistic climate budgeting ultimately touches everything from procurement, contracts and official documentation to training and job descriptions. In Oslo, many major departments have appointed dedicated climate advisors.

“A climate budget can also be used as a tool in a green and just post-Covid recovery. This would entail including safeguards to ensure the climate budget measures are implemented in an inclusive and socially just manner,” Robertsen commented.

Oslo’s progress

The latest available figures from the Norwegian Environment Agency show that Oslo’s greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 12 percent from 2009 to 2018. This includes a three percent increase from 2017 to 2018.

It is estimated that Oslo’s emissions will be reduced by 25 percent in 2020, rather than the target of 41 percent and the Climate Agency believes it may also be challenging to cut emissions 52 percent by 2023. Figures are published around two years after the emissions take place

In November last year, Heidi Sørensen, Director of the City of Oslo’s Climate Agency, said that developments to 2018 “have not been satisfactory” and: “It is therefore important to introduce more initiatives so that we can achieve our target by 2030.”

Oslo’s climate budget for 2021 focuses on reducing emissions from the construction industry and road traffic, including more and improved charging infrastructure and greener transport of bulk materials.