Mainstreaming Climate Change in Urban Planning

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/global-survey-climate-change-now-mainstream-part-city-planning

Portland, Oregon
travelportland.com

Hello Everyone:

More housecleaning today and this time we have unearthed an article by Peter Dizikes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology News on urban planning in the time of climate change, "Global survey: Climate change now a mainstream part of city planning."  Regardless if you think climate change is real or not, the fact is climate change has become so much of an issue that an increasing number of cities across the globe are making preparations for more intense storms, wetter winters, and hotter summers part of their basic urban planning.  However, Mr. Dizikes reports that a global survey of cities revealed, "....but only a small portion of them have been able to make such plans part of their economic development priorities."  The article is based on a collaborative study by MIT and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative, Urban Climate Change Governance Survey, which looks at "...how different approaches to climate governance affect how cities take action on climate change..."(http://www.urbangateway.org/document/urban-climate-change-governance-survey)

The UCGS study is the result of a joint effort between the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and ICLEI, the world's biggest association of cities.  The report was released in time with an ICLEI-sponsored urban planning conference in Bonn, Germany.  The researchers sent civic officials from 700 different cities around the world a questionnaire to which 48 responded to a set of 69 questions

MIT Department of Urban Studies logo
mqvncdc.org

 According to MIT DUSP post-doctorate student and lead author of the  study Alexander Aylett, "Climate change isn't an isolated  issue....It has large implications for all other aspects of  urban life.  What we are see is cities starting to build it into  the DNA of how they approach urban planning."  The  survey found that 75 percent of cities around the world now  make climate change issues part of their regular planning  and 73 percent of said cities are trying out both climate  change mitigation and climate adaptation-meaning, the 73  percent are trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and  adapt to long-term change already in place.  Yet, only 21  percent of the surveyed cities reported an real connection  between the response and achieving other municipal goals.

Alexander Aylett dismisses the "cliché" that "environmental and economic progress cannot coexist, citing a number of cities where jobs and growth have derived from climate-change efforts.  Portland, Oregon is one example cited by Mr. Aylett.  The City of Portland has developed incentive, training, and regulations to assist the growth of sustainable construction firms.  A pilot program, Clean Energy Works Portland has hired 400 people tasked with reducing home energy use and carbon emissions by 1,400 metric tons yearly.

Calgary, Alberta skyline
theguardian.com

Another example are the urban planners in Alberta, Canada who analyzed the cost efficiency associated with limiting metropolitan sprawl.  The found that denser development had the potential to  save $11 billion (unclear whether this is Canadian or American dollars) in capital costs over a sixty year period and $130 million (again unclear if this is American or Canadian dollars) in annual maintenance.  By maintenance, is the reader to assume sanitation, infrastructure upkeep and repair, landscaping, or something else?  Mr. Aylett suggests, "...most cities...have simply not yet identified ways to link climate planning and economic development in the first place...It isn't so much that it's hard to reconcile economic and environmental priories...It's that we're not trying."

Des Moines, Iowa
city-data.com

Regional difference remain

The Urban Climate Change Governance Survey is a companion to a study conducted in 2012, which revealed regional differences in urban climate planning.  When compared with the 75 percent worldwide average, American cities fall behind in both mitigation and adaption; 58 percent of cities dealing with both.  This is similar to the findings of the 2012 survey, which concluded that a smaller number of American cities were conducting elementary climate change planning in context to other regions-59 percent for the United States versus 95 percent in South America.  I wonder if this 95 percent in South America is a little high.  Overall, 63 percent of cities claim that the have at least one employee dedicated to climate change planning-North American cities (Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, Greenland http://www.worldatlas.com) are most likely to have only one staff member dedicated to the subject. The executive summary state, "A lack of funding to hire sufficient staff to work on climate change is a significant challenge for 67 percent of cities."

Boston City Hall Plaza
Boston, Massachusetts
en.wikipedia.org

On a slightly more positive note, about 85 percent of the cities surveyed have conducted an inventory of local GHG emission and 15 percent of that have tried to trace the emissions stemming from goods and services consumed in their specific city.  Mr. Aylett observes "Beginning to address these upstream emissions is crucial if cities are really going to help bring down global emissions."

The survey conclusions also demonstrate that local businesses and industries are more or less disengaged with the urban responses to climate.  About 25 percent of cites claim that local businesses have been important to the creation and implementation of climate mitigation plans juxtaposes to 48 percent of cities reported that local non-profits or like organization have participated in climate planning.

John Robinson, a professor of geography at the University of British Columbia, is among other scholars who believe the survey is "extremely important and extremely useful."  Specifically, Prof. Robinson states, "[an] important issue raised by this work is what the connection is between framing these responses in terms of climate change and framing them in terms of broader conceptual frameworks, such as sustainability."  Prof. Robinson believes in the general concept of sustainable development in urban areas, adding, "may be most helpful in mainstreaming climate policy."

The full report is available at http://www.urbanclimatesurvey.com