UN COP19 UPDATE Dr. Penny Ballem

UN COP19 - Warsaw

• Conference of the Parties• Follow-up from Kyoto• Major goal: significant agreement on climate

change in Paris 2015– Financial assistance to developing countries to assist

with mitigation and recovery from climate change events

– Focus on the poor– Involvement of local government and other

subnational governments – Sign on to action and renewed targets by national

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UN COP19 / ICLEI UPDATELocal Government and Climate Change

• Climate events are happening in cities around the world

• 80% of the world’s population will live in cities by the year 2050;

• Cities also contributing to climate change

• The poor are disproportionately impacted

• Cities in Canada own 60% of public infrastructure.

• Onus is on local government to mitigate and adapt to climate change

• Recognizing this, UN officials invited leading cities globally to participate in the COP19 dialogue.

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UN COP19 – Developing Countries

Examples:• Managua - Nicaragua:

– Renewable energy • Target: 90% renewable energy by 2020

– Wind, steam, biomass, solar, hydroelectric

• Delta State – Nigeria:– 4M population; 40% of land base underwater with floods

• Serious damage to soil, air, water• Urban poor dislocated and at risk

• Phillipines• Global Agencies: World Bank, IMF, OECD, UNCS, EU

– Municipalities where it is happening; they are leading national governments– Credit worthiness, access to funds ($700B/yr necessary); analytics– “closest to people”; 5M/month moving to cities; 1B live in slums, close to jobs– Cities can integrate implementation– Cities need to be involved in decision-making

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UN COP19 UPDATE

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UN COP19 UPDATEWorld Green Building Council Awards

• Sponsored by WGBC, UN Habitat, ICLEI

• “The overall winner of ‘Best Green Building Policy’ is Vancouver Canada, for its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, an example of excellence in sustainable city policies.”

• Other awardees:– Abu Dabai– Christchurch– Seoul– Honorable mentions:

• Cape Town• Shanghai• UK Brighton and Hove

TOWARD ZERO CARBON THROUGH:

GREEN BUILDINGSKEY PUBLIC POLICY• All new buildings to be carbon

neutral in operations by 2020.• Existing buildings to reduce

energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

• Projects applying for rezoning (about 50% of new development area annually)be certified LEED Gold and show a 20% to 50% improvement on the local energy code.

• Large developments explore and use renewable or district energy systems when viable.

Key Messages for Vancouver

• Multidimensional Greenest City Action Plan:– Provides opportunities for all to engage– Community mobilization– Explicit reporting of results– Mobilization of city staff and departments

• Vancouver seen as an important resource for cities in developing world – UN Habitat

• Cities are proving grounds for real action – C. Figueres UN– Clean energy; transportation; waste and sanitation; social cohesion

health

• Invitation to NY Summit on Climate Change: Sept 23 2014

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Greenest City Action Plan Framework

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Greenest City Action Plan Projects

SUMMARY:• Global recognition of

Vancouver’s success• Much more work to do to

achieve 2020 targets• Continued engagement of

all necessary for continued leadership

• Opportunity to continue to lead the world through innovative public policy solutions.

“There is no ‘Plan B’ because there is no ‘Planet B’”

- Ban Ki Moon

UN COP19 UPDATE