Diversity of approaches, actors and instruments to drive progress

2012

ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

In the case studies selected, progress has been pioneered through a diversity of approaches, instruments and by involving various actors to respond to urban environmental challenges at the local level. Despite this diversity there are some important commonalities and conclusions that can be drawn; driving a vision requires political support and commitment; such drive is best institutionalized through, and interwoven with, respective bodies into a broader process; enabling framework conditions have to respond to drivers or be created for effective implementation; and any action and process needs to be cemented in public and private support.

It starts with a driver of change, who start, rally, envision, and take the first step in a longer journey towards urban sustainability. In the illustrated cases these have been visionary local leaders, local councils voting for ambitious targets, forward thinking government departments and citizens’, and stakeholders’ initiatives. In particular, local environmental departments or bureaus have shown to play a key role in setting a new sustainability agenda. Simultaneously the role of the community, civil society, and individuals should not be understated. They have elective power and often advocate for improvements. State and national governments play a relevant role, especially when providing incentives and legal framework conditions, which encourage pioneering and far-reaching local action.

Driving sustainability will be more successful when an individual community action is anchored to an organizational, institutional, or other administrative process (eg. case example: Iida’s citizen funded solar company collaboration with the local government). Institutionalization of sustainability through a department or other organizational structure, with a particular mandate, can systematize the drive towards urban sustainability. This is illustrated by the case of the Bureau of the Environment in Tokyo, the State of Veracruz’s Ministry of Environment, or Durban’s Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department. By further interweaving such bodies into a broader process initiatives that may appear small in significance can build up to a larger, more gravitating journey towards urban sustainability (as illustrated in selected case studies).

Local governments are recognized for their important role in responding to and creating enabling framework conditions for civil society and other actors to act more sustainably in a city. At the same time local governments also depend upon the enabling framework conditions set through higher tiers of government. In addition local governments need to keep cities econmically and socially viable and attractive places to live in.For urban sustainability action to be effectively implemented, policy, legislative and organizational change may often be necessary to keep up and address emerging and foreseen challenges and trends.

Examples for enabling institutional and legislative conditions as created by local governments include:

• The creation of new institutions and bodies (eg.Portland’s Bureau of Planning Sustainability and the Economic Cabinet to support the Economic Development Strategy).

• Amendment of existing legislation (eg.Melbourne’s Environmental Upgrade agreements) and regulation (Thane’s renewable energy building by-laws).

• The fine-tuning of existing procedures (eg.Reykjavik’s sustainable procurement criteria),

• Measuring success, documenting knowledge, monitoring improvements, and integrating such information into institutional frameworks for more effective urban management (eg.Cape Town’s Biodiversity Network Tool and Strategy on natural resources, Toronto’s innovative tool to analyze climate change risks).

• Master-planning development (eg.Rizhao’s Eco-City Building Plan) and settlement formalization (Betim’s formalization of Parque do Cedro for electricity supply).

• Long-term commitment to improving urban sustainability over political terms (eg.long-term improvements in Nantes)

• Stakholder involvement is also important for implementation, and can be gained and solidified through the provision of information, education campaigns,learning centers, and especially participation in developing public policy and action (eg. Betim’s clean energy promotion). Colloboration with the private sector is essential in terms of expertise, technological advancement and finance. Involving civil society is imperative to garner public support for sustainability initiatives and to ensure strong citizen participation in local government decision making, therefore ensuring a strong sense of citizen ownership.

The variety of actors at each stage is one of the main reasons why stakeholder involvement is necessary and a key contributing factor for successful and effective action. The cases show LA21 principles in action and their evolution to make marked progress toward local and global sustainability. The principles articulated in the LA21 movement are re-affirmed as guiding principles for decision making in a myriad of guises, in a way that it suggests the principles have been absorbed into a general approach to urban governance. The spirit of the Earth Summit 1992 is still alive today and shows a progressive evolution in cities around the world.

Targeted and effective mechanisms depend upon up to date baselineinformation, which can include the assessment of a city’s energy situation and use (Thane, Tokyo), biodiversity hotspots and natural capital (Cape Town), climate change vulnerabilities (Toronto), greenhouse gas emissions inventories (Veracruz), economic advantages (Portland), or even on the availability of green services on the market (Reykjavik).

Through complementary and integrated policy and program packages, mechanisms can be more effective. This is illustrated with Tokyo’s Cap and Trade and Green Building programs for existing and new buildings respectively. Another is the citizen-funded renewable energy company in combination with public-private partnerships and legislative change (Iida).

Supra-local governance frameworks can provide very powerful means to enable and support local actions. These can be achieved for example through: a nationally driven, locally responsive incentive linked process (India’s JNNURM); amendment of higher tier governance acts and statutory reforms to enable local innovation (state laws for Melbourne to realize the Environmental Upgrade agreements);setting the super-local legislative and institutional frameworks (State of Veracruz climate change program); or simply recognizing a city’s improvements through an award (Nantes’ recognition by the European Commission’s Green Capital Award and quality of living marketing).

International actors, shown in selected cases, can provide support by providing upfront funding (funded study in Veracruz), training and technical expertise (Thane renewable campaigns), as well as opportunities for knowledge sharing (Reykjavik’s participation in sustainable procurement campaign). Organisations such as ICLEI, along with many others,have been influential in promoting local action by providing an international platform for knowledge and information sharing to encourage, provide confidence and ideas to act. Training, facilitating networking,city-to-city exchanges, research and pilot projects, as well as technical services,consultancy, software and tools all are important to capacitate and support local governments in achieving sustainable development in their cities and communities.

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