Through its two components, the IUC programme in Asia supported climate action throughout the region. First, it facilitated city-to-city cooperation between cities in China and Europe in thematic clusters. Second, it supported cities from a number of Asian countries achieve ambitious climate targets via the Global Covenant of Mayors. The IUC Asia team has reflected on the programme’s success; what follows is based on their reflection.

The IUC programme in China took a unique approach to city-to-city cooperation; namely, a clustered approach, in which Chinese and European cities worked in thematic clusters based on the topics they wished to explore, which spanned digital and smart cities, energy transition, circular economy, healthy cities, cultural exchange, and mobility.

China offers unique opportunities to scale-up existing, or to test new, European sustainable urban development solutions. This opens the potential for European cities to go beyond knowledge-sharing alone, and to achieve concrete results in dynamic and growing urban areas. For Chinese cities, cooperation opportunities with European peers opened economic opportunities, guided by national strategies, and helped cities gain international exposure.

“Urban areas are the engines of our economies and act as catalysts for creativity and innovation throughout the Union…This is why urban development is a central point of EU regional policy and an important point in our collaboration with our main partners such as China…International collaboration projects such as IUC support the achievement of bilateral policy objectives.”
H.E. Nicolas Chapuis, Ambassador of the European Union to China.

Through the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM), cities across Southeast Asia had the chance to benefit from technical assistance for climate action planning; share and learn from best practices; and be part of a global community of cities committed to building climate-resilient and low-emission societies. The IUC Asia team worked with these cities as they developed climate action plans through engaging citizens, stakeholders, and a multitude of city departments. The team also supporting cities to ensure that local, regional and national level climate action aligned.

Distinct challenges came up as the IUC Asia team worked to meet their ambitious goals. In order to implement concrete projects, it was imperative to identify the right stakeholders in European and Chinese cities. To this end, participating cities were required to involve partners from the research and private sectors. Building trust amongst partners could also pose a challenge, especially when city representatives changed over time, and there were cultural and language barriers. Finally, cities in China and Europe are quite different in terms of population size and governance systems, which at times led to differing local mandates and expectations.

The data collection process posed an additional obstacle for Southeast Asian GCoM cities working to develop evidence-based climate action plans. The array of data needed is diverse, must be sourced from varying stakeholders, and may not be available at the city level. This challenge further emphasised the importance of working across stakeholders and governing levels.

Despite these challenges, cities that participated in the IUC Asia programme have achieved substantial successes.

Early in their IUC cooperation, Chongqing and Mannheim (Germany) hosted each other in bilateral missions, which led to a direct freight train connection between their cities, established in 2018. The relationship has further evolved, leading to the launch of the “Mannheim/Rhein-Necker – Chongqing Innovation Centre” in September 2020. Study visits between the two cities enabled local stakeholders – from the public and private sectors, as well as from academia – to develop the above pilot projects.

"We are a city, a region that is extremely dependent on exports. We depend on it, trade with the entire world. And that’s why China, one of the largest markets, is naturally of economic interest, but of course also recognising that we as cities have global responsibilities, for example regarding climate change. This is the reason we work together on the IUC programme. Because the challenges in Chongqing or Mannheim, such as how to reduce the CO2 footprint, are matters that connect us."
Christian Specht, First Deputy Mayor, City of Mannheim, Germany

The IUC cities of Barcelona (Spain), Stuttgart (Germany), Bologna and Rome (Italy) will participate in their IUC colleague Yangzhou’s Horticulture Expo in 2021, which is being held under the theme of “Green City, Healthy Life.” The expo will showcase innovative, energy efficient, urban nature-based solutions. The Barcelona pavilion will, for example, display green roofs and refurbished brownfield sites, while Bologna will showcase the relationship between its urban and rural areas, and Rome will feature open piazzas and an amphitheatre. With travel restrictions hampering the cities’ abilities to travel to Yangzhou, several online coaching sessions have taken place with the European cities to provide support for the design and construction of their pavilions.

Rome is also engaging in the field of digital urban planning. In September 2020, Sapienza University of Rome hosted a two-week course in English, which was organised in cooperation with Tongji University and the Southeast University of China. More than 30 students from Liuzhou, Yantai University, Northeastern University, and from Hong Kong’s Glodon Company took part in the course, which explored managing urban planning workflows with various digital tools and integrated methodologies.

Through the GCoM, IUC Asia was able to engage Asian cities beyond China. For example, the IUC Asia team hosted a knowledge-sharing event for Indonesian cities in September 2019, which focused on “Mitigation and Adaptation Actions Towards Climate Resilience Development for a Sustainable City.” The next month, in October 2019, IUC Asia engaged diverse stakeholders as part of the seventh Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-7). The IUC hosted a booth to showcase its cities’ innovative sustainability solutions, and organised interactive workshops and trainings on municipal finance, smart cities, circular economy, urban resilience, and more.

Throughout the IUC programme in Asia, a few lessons became clear. One was the importance of mainstreaming climate action plans across different departments and levels of government. The Government of Palembang (Indonesia), for example, is integrating climate mitigation targets into their Regional Medium-term Development 2018–2023 plan, which explicitly incorporates the city’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, along with interventions to achieve it. In Malaysia, climate action in Muar District, Johor will be carried out in coordination with the recently established Johor State Low Carbon Council. Resulting actions and strategies will be incorporated into the Muar District Local Plan 2030, ensuring alignment with Johor State development policies.

Additional key lessons include the importance of: having regular online meetings to maintain momentum and implement concrete projects; cooperating with other European programmes; and tapping into cities’ other activities to ensure political support and to generate co-benefit. Finally, engaging private and research sector stakeholders was crucial to lasting success.

Overall, the IUC programme led to the realisation of concrete, stakeholder-driven plans and projects in cities in Europe and China, with engagement of political leaders, experts, and various urban representatives. Cities who engaged in the GCoM were supported in using climate risk and vulnerability assessments, greenhouse gas inventories, and other empirical inputs to inform climate action plans and related decision-making. This has resulted in a wide diversity of Asian cities being on the path to measurable and actionable climate ambitions.

Header image and infographic both provided courtesy of IUC Asia.