Tshwane - a Climate
Resilient City
Current Conditions
There have been some
intergovernmental agreements in 2015 related to resilience issues such
as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda on
Sustainable Development, Financing for Development and Paris Climate
Change Agreement. In 2016, these frameworks had heavy influence on the
UN and National government policies. There is going to be a 22nd
Conference of the Parties Climate Conference in November in Marrakech
which follows up the Paris agreement.
In
the current era, there is enormous growth of urban population in the
world. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal 11 addresses
cities and points out to make cities and human settlements inclusive,
safe, resilient and sustainable.
There are many problems arising due to increased urban population. Some
of them are insecurity, increased residency in slums and informal
settlements etc. The new Urban Agenda is going to set the road map for
balance between development and urbanisation. This agenda will allow
addressing issues such as inequality, climate change etc.
Good Practices
In South Africa, Tshwane city has experienced many extreme events
due to climate change such as more frequent and severe droughts,
hailstorms which have affected the economy of the city. The city of
Tshwane Metropolitan has enacted and it acclaimed Green building bye
laws which are a unique feature of the country. The adoption of these
laws led to improvement in the energy efficiency of buildings. A City
Sustainability Unit has been created along with a Climate Change
Response Strategy. A Green House Gas Inventory and Vulnerability
Assessment was conducted which lead to the Municipality focusing on
resilient infrastructure to upgrade and relocate the informal
settlements.
The Municipality has also developed the Green Economy Strategic
Framework. It is also in process of finalising the Sustainability
Financing Mechanism Strategy (SFMS) which aims at searching for funds
for green projects (Kavanaugh, 2015).
The national and local taxation policies can change the public behaviour
and environmental outcomes of human activities. Green Bonds Policy can
increase the participation in green infrastructure investment. A “green
bond” is differentiated from a regular bond by its label, which
signifies a commitment to exclusively use the funds raised to finance or
re-finance “green” projects, assets or business activities (ICMA,2015).
Green Bonds can be particularly attractive to institutional investors
and help to increase the green infrastructure. Green Bonds have been
issued by cities like Gothenburg and Johannesburg. (O Merk, 2014)
Additional enabling policies and energy efficiency can also be a tool
for climate resilient development. The European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF)
which provides tailor made debt and equity instruments to local and
regional bodies can be quoted in this context.
A strong national framework based on carbon pricing will make the urban
environment better. Public sector financing is not sufficient for green
urban infrastructure projects. Hence private sector investments need to
be encouraged.
Resilience of cities should be built in the context of sustainability.
An effective combination of policy instruments can lead to a sustainable
urban environment. ■
Anindita Singh
asingh1@devalt.org
References:
ICLEI. (2015). Resilient Cities Report.
ICMA. (n.d.). (2015) Green Bond Principles Voluntary process,
guidelines. Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Kavanaugh, E. M. (2015). Resilient Cities Report. ICLEI.
O Merk, K. e. (2014). Climate Bond Initiatives. Bank of International
Settlements.
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