The guide will serve as a tool to accelerate sustainable, equitable and resilient urban planning policies and promote deliverable climate action around the globe.
C40 Cities and Community Jameel alongside UrbanShift have launched a climate action guide to help support cities in embedding climate action within their urban planning frameworks.
The scale and footprint of urban areas are growing 50 per cent faster than their populations, creating vast and sprawling cities that lead to car dependency and high-emission lifestyles, C40 reports.
Near hazard-prone areas
Simultaneously, urban expansion in flood-prone areas is outpacing growth in safer zones, with 90 per cent of urban expansion in Global South countries happening in or near hazard-prone areas.
Recognising the urgency for action, the Climate Action Guide for Urban Planners guide aims to:
- Positions cities’ climate action plans as an essential base for climate-responsive urban planning
- Provides evidence, based on research and data, on the importance of cohesive urban planning and its role in tackling the climate crisis
- Elaborates on how climate action can be embedded into the ten stages cities commonly follow to prepare an urban plan, providing key tips and examples for urban planners to follow
- Identifies and explains seven key planning policy areas for climate action and showcases some of the best examples of climate-responsive urban planning policies that cities around the world have adopted for each area.
The Climate Action Guide is set to be disseminated during international urban planning events such as the World Urban Forum 12 in Cairo in 2024 and the C40 Mayors Summit in London in 2025. The guide aims to serve as an implementation tool at the local level for chief planners, deputy mayors, key city officials and planning teams in adapting their cities within C40’s member cities, which span seven geographic regions.
“By the middle of the century, urban areas could triple in size, with significant consequences for natural ecosystems, greenhouse gas emissions, and vulnerability to climate-related risks such as flooding, heatwaves, and water scarcity,” said Hélène Chartier, C40 director of urban planning and design.
“Urban planners are therefore key climate champions: the decisions they make today will define cities’ capacities to meet climate goals and enhance quality of life for all residents, now and long into the future. This is why C40 is continuing to expand its support for planners in cities around the world.”
“Urban planning is a powerful tool to tackle the climate crisis and create sustainable, equitable and resilient cities,” Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris and former chair of C40 Cities.
“By adjusting their urban planning regulations, local governments can mainstream the climate priorities identified in their Climate Action Plan and transpose them into concrete actions and legally binding policies.”
Hidalgo added: “When Paris began revising its Urban Plan (Plan Local d’Urbanisme or Plu), I saw this as a key opportunity to balance urban development with environmental sustainability. Our new Bioclimatic Plu exemplifies the transformative power of urban planning in combating the climate crisis. I hope that our bioclimatic Plu, much like this C40 guide, will serve as direction and inspiration for planners around the world to take bold, decisive actions.”
C40 and Community Jameel introduced the guide at the 12th iteration of the World Urban Forum, during a jointly-convened session titled “Navigating the Polycrisis – Evidence-Based Policy for Resilient Cities.” The guide is available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese (BR) and Spanish here.
The session’s panellists included: Dr Yousef Shawarbeh, mayor of Amman; Laia Bonet, deputy mayor for urbanism, ecological transition, mobility and housing at UN-Habitat; Ahmed Elsayed, executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Middle East and North Africa; and Ahmed Abulaban, chief resilience officer and city director of Ramallah.
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Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 08.11.2024
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