NDCs: What is there for Latin America big cities?

Details

The landmark success of the Paris Agreement must be credited to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of countries responsible for more than 95% of global emissions. The NDCs were a major effort by National Governments projecting their expected increases of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the coming decades, and pledging

reductions of such emissions in order to limit global temperature rise up to 2oC.

Different countries have proposed different strategies and approaches to reduce emissions. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the NDCs were determined by National Governments “only”. Some level of consultation existed in many, or most countries, but engagement of sub-national entities was essentially nil. This may be understood given the pressing time that the NDCs were constructed and also, more relevant, the fact that most decisions affecting future carbon emissions of a country are responsibility of national governments: the energy mix, the percentage of renewable, emission standards, fuel standards, phase out of technologies, and many others.

Many other decisions, however, are responsibility of sub-national and local-level governments – including transportation policies, city design, waste management, building efficiency codes, consumer behavior and practices, and many others. Cities, in particular, have a crucial contribution in helping countries to arrive at a climate agreement of a global scale. To begin with, half of the world’s population lives in cities, a share that reaches 80 percent in Latin America. Cities house most built assets, generate more than 80 percent of the world GDP, are responsible for some 70-80 percent of energy consumed, and generate three quarters of energy related GHG emissions. Such concentration of people, built assets and economic activity makes cities particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This same concentration makes it attractive and more cost-effective to focus both mitigation (and adaptation) action on cities.

The objective of this workshop series is to help both national governments as well as selected city governments in Latin America to strengthen a dialogue process to align the national NDC with existing city government plans and initiatives on climate change, which may have synergies with each other.

It appears appropriate to begin the exercise with a selected number of countries and (Mega) cities in Latin America. The Region has two Megacities with particularly strong climate plans – Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. Other two large cities to be included are Buenos Aires and Lima, the latter will be host of the first workshop of the series, to be held on March 2017.

This project is the result of the collaboration between the Regional Programme Energy Security and Climate Change in Latin America of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (EKLA-KAS) and the International Institute for Sustainability (IIS).

Agenda

I.Registration

• 8:30 – 9:00 h

II.Welcome Words

• 9:00 – 9:10 h
• Dr. Christian Hübner (EKLA-KAS)

III.Presentation IIS: NDCs and Latin American cities: Case Study Lima-Peru

• 9:15 – 10:00h
• Sergio Margulis (IIS)

IV.Pause

• 10:00 – 10:15h

V.Debate: How to harmonize the NDC goals with the City Climate Plans and vice versa?

• 10:15 – 11:50
• Moderation: Karina Marzano (EKLA-KAS)
• We are looking forward to the active participation of all experts

VI.Presentation of the results of the survey Lima Cómo Vamos

• 11:50 – 12:00 h
• Patricia Alata (Lima Cómo Vamos)

VII.Closing remarks

• 12:00 – 12:10 h
• Dr. Christian Hübner (EKLA-KAS)

VIII. Lunch

• 12:10 h