Climate Finance in the Urban Context
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DEVELOPMENT · CLIMATE · AND FINANCE Climate Finance in the Urban Context November 2010 COSTS OF ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION IN CITIES ISSUES BRIEF #4 A good deal of climate-resilient development in the urban Cities and the people who live in them context simply means good, robust development. Potential climatic changes pose additional challenges in building account for more than 80 percent of the infrastructure that can withstand extreme variations in world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. In weather conditions, such as flooding, wind storms, heat waves, and heavy snowfall. Increasingly the work toward addition, more than 80 percent of the over- the Millennium Development Goals and related urban all annual global costs of adaptation to infrastructure should be screened for the potential impacts and increased costs associated with a changing climate. climate change are estimated to be borne by urban areas. This Issues Brief looks at There is an incremental cost to climate-resilient develop- potential financing opportunities and costs ment for which cities are seeking additional financing. Cities are also the largest emitters of greenhouse gases of mitigation and adaptation in the urban (GHGs) and are experiencing increased costs as they move context. Wide-ranging potential sources for toward low-carbon development paths—that is, mitigat- ing GHG emissions. finance for climate action are described, and suggestions are made for more- When addressing adaptation and mitigation costs, the effective responses to climate investment broad range of financing needs includes: challenges in cities. • Upstream planning for the provision of urban services • Prefeasibility and feasibility analysis of investments • Support for climate change adaptation and disaster risk management at the city level 2 • Support for low-carbon solutions in the energy sector opportunity for rapidly growing cities: they can be built • The design and construction of investments better and avoid locking in costly, high-emitting and non- • Maintenance and repair climate-resilient infrastructure. • Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. Effective public policy can encourage future populations to move away from areas of high natural risk. This requires ADAPTATION forthright sharing of information and avoiding perverse incentives to remain in high-risk areas as well as positive Key adaptation considerations for urban areas emerging incentives to promote settlement and urban growth in from the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change lower-risk areas. study and the complementary study on coastal cities (both completed by the World Bank in 2010) include: No common method has been developed to quantify climate risk at the urban level. Inability to estimate the • Urban flooding is a significant risk, particularly in cost of local adaptation hampers the efforts of cities to low-lying coastal cities. identify concessional resources to meet the adaptation • Urban infrastructure (drainage and buildings) account challenge. Good practical examples of prioritization and for over half of the costs of infrastructure. costs of the impact of climate change and consequent risk • Municipal and industrial water supply is also likely to need to be developed and piloted in cities to provide be concentrated in urban areas. common benchmarks and guidelines. One such effort is • Coastal protection measures focus on people and eco- the Urban Risk Assessment being developed by the World nomic activity and are concentrated in urban areas. Bank in partnership with the United Nations Environment • Adaptation costs account for only a fraction of overall Programme, UN-HABITAT, and the Cities Alliance. baseline costs associated with normal development. For instance, much of the flooding in large cities is caused by land use changes, poorly maintained drain- MITIGATION age infrastructure, and weak management rather than by climate change. Urban residents on average use two to three times more resources than people in rural areas of the same country. With expected increases in urbanization and higher Their resource-intensive lifestyles account for more than income levels, most urban infrastructure that will exist in 80 percent of the world’s total GHG emissions. Yet cities, 40–50 years has not yet been built, nor have all the loca- especially the denser city cores, are more efficient in tions been determined. This provides a unique providing basic services than suburban or rural areas. Cities BOX 1 Coastal Cities at RISK The recent Climate Risks and Adaptation in Asian Coastal Megacities: A Synthesis Report—a two-year collaborative study by the Asian Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the World Bank—studied the vulnerability of four Asian coastal cities to the impacts of climate change. If current climate change trends continue, flooding in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila is likely to occur more frequently by 2050, submerging large parts of each city for longer peri- ods of time. Costs from major flooding events are estimated to run into billions of dollars, depending on the city and climate change scenario considered, with urban poor populations likely to be especially hard hit. The additional damage cost from climate change is estimated to be in the range of 2–6 percent of regional gross domestic product (GDP). In Manila, a 1-in-30-year flood can lead to damages ranging from $900 million, given current flood control infrastructure and climate conditions, to $1.5 billion with similar infrastructure but with a high-emissions climate scenario. The report goes on to say that in Metro Manila, if flood control infrastructure improvements were halted now, under a high-climate-change scenario a 100-year return period flood could cause aggregate damages of up to 24 percent of regional GDP. 3 in the developing world, where more than four-fifths of • Replacement of inefficient cook stoves that use wood future population growth will take place, can have a signif- or GHG-emitting fuels with new technologies. icant positive impact on GHG emissions by investing in low-carbon technologies, building to an optimum urban Many of these mitigation opportunities may have a higher form, and enacting energy efficiency measures. Since many initial cost than providing the same services through of the technologically superior options are considerably conventional solutions. These incremental costs need to be more expensive than conventional technologies, cities often met through additional sources of funds. find it difficult to justify selecting them. Mitigation efforts in the urban context may include: • Programs to reduce the cost and extend the availabil- BOX 3 Supporting MEXico’S ity of energy-efficient lighting and appliances Urban Low-carbon • Renewable energy facilities Transformation • Use of waste/landfills for energy through biomass and methane recovery The objective of the Mexico Urban Transport Transformation • Geothermal energy Program is to change urban transport in Mexican cities to a • Improved mobility through affordable mass transit lower-carbon growth path by improving its quality and sus- tainability and by upgrading related elements of the urban transport system. The project is ambitious in its design and scope and, if successful, will have a transformative impact BOX 2 Shifts in EnergY Sources on the urban transport sector in Mexico. It builds on a World for CooKing in TanZania Bank loan of $200 million and an additional Clean Technology Fund concessional loan of $200 million. These In Tanzania, 33 percent of the population was urban in 2007 resources will be channeled through the Banco Nacional de (up from 21 percent in 2001). With a growth rate of 4.3 per- Obras, which will then provide the participating municipali- cent per year, Dar es Salaam is one of the fastest-growing ties with this loan funding. Combined with funding from the cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. From 2001 to 2007, the propor- National Trust for Infrastructure, this will make up to $900 tion of households using charcoal as their primary energy million available. The private sector and the municipalities source increased from 47 to 71 percent. Use of liquefied themselves are expected to make contributions of up to petroleum gas declined from 43 to 12 percent. In other $300 million and $150 million, respectively. An estimate of urban areas, the share of households using charcoal for the potential for carbon revenue payments could run to cooking remained at 53 percent while the share of fuelwood approximately $50 million additional funds. Urban areas that use increased from 33 to 38 percent. The use of electricity complete and propose Integral Transport Plans will be eligi- for cooking is below 1 percent. ble for funds. Shutterstock Images, LLC 4 CURRENT SOURCES OF specific beneficiaries can be identified and nonpayers can CLIMATE FINANCE be excluded. Fees are particularly effective when they recover full costs and when paid according to individual or household use, as these give residents incentives for more Adaptation and mitigation programs require financing efficient use of resources. from a wide variety of local, national, and international sources, public and private, with various levels of grants Governments at all levels are usually reluctant to raise and concessional lending. A large share of climate invest- taxes. Local governments often receive much of their over- ments are funded from general sources not directly attrib- all funding from national or state/provincial transfers. As utable