Categorie: Report

City typology as the basis for policy

Towards a tailor-made approach to the benchmarking and monitoring of the energy and climate policy of cities

KPMG | 2010

The whole world is facing a significant challenge of how to limit the effects of climate change. These days, there is little doubt that climate change is an important issue. Therefore, the main question now is how to address it. A noteworthy report with ideas and concepts.

Bernd Hendriksen, Director, Sustainability Advisory practice, KPMG in the Netherlands: “Addressing climate change is a shared responsibility requiring the joint support of citizens, businesses and governments. Cities occupy a crucial position in this respect. They house large populations and many businesses, generating a great deal of mobility, and are, therefore, significant emitters of greenhouse gases.

This also implies that cities have unique opportunities to develop an energy and climate policy to reduce these emissions significantly. To achieve this, cities can mobilise the parties involved, create awareness and enforce specific changes through legislation and regulations. The range of issues to be addressed is virtually endless, from waste collection and industrial policy to car use in the inner cities and grant schemes for green energy.

“Cities are responsible for about eighty per cent of the global energy consumption and half of the total greenhouse gas emissions (European Commission, 20081). Cities are, therefore, one of the key locations in the fight against global warming.”

Moreover, this also presents cities with opportunities: a city that successfully tackles this issue can raise its profile accordingly. In the near future, this will become an increasingly important way for cities to distinguish themselves.

Understandably, cities are already using the opportunities available to place the issue of climate change on a solid footing. Domestically as well as internationally, numerous initiatives and tools have been implemented to measure the efforts, benchmark and share knowledge.

In this publication, KPMG Sustainability analyses and compares the impact of various tools and initiatives. One of our conclusions is that the landscape is cluttered, showing little uniformity or cohesion. We also conclude that initiatives are often not correctly aligned to the specific characteristics of a given city and, therefore, do not invite a tailor-made approach. We have therefore made several suggestions for improvement. These are also based on the awareness that cities, particularly in the coming years, will require tailor-made policies that are designed to achieve optimal and sustainable results cost-effectively.

Furthermore, requirements will become stricter. The Covenant of Mayors (a European Commission initiative for commitment by signatory towns and cities to go beyond the objectives of EU energy policy in terms of reduction in CO2 emissions), for example, is drafting stricter requirements concerning reporting. The European Commission will also keep a close eye on the energy and climate policies of cities.”

Rechtvaardigheid in klimaatbeleid

Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid | februari 2023

Rechtvaardigheid moet, net als doelmatigheid en rechtmatigheid, een belangrijke pijler zijn van het Nederlandse klimaatbeleid. Het klimaat en het klimaatbeleid zullen de komende decennia veranderen. Niet alleen moet de CO2-uitstoot in 2050 teruggebracht zijn tot netto nul, ook zal Nederland steeds meer te maken krijgen met een stijgende zeespiegel en extreem weer. Deze opgaven gaan gepaard met hoge kosten.

Als de verdeling van deze klimaatkosten niet als rechtvaardig wordt ervaren, dan komt het draagvlak voor het klimaatbeleid onder druk. In het rapport Rechtvaardigheid in klimaatbeleid. Over de verdeling van klimaatkosten doet de WRR daarom drie aanbevelingen:

    1. Verbreed het debat en behandel het klimaatbeleid als een verdelingsvraagstuk.
    2. Veranker de aandacht voor rechtvaardigheid in het beleidsproces door verdelingsbeginselen stelselmatig en vroegtijdig expliciet te maken.
    3. Zorg voor institutionele borging en toetsing van de aandacht voor een rechtvaardige verdeling van klimaatkosten.

Klimaatkosten

Het rapport gaat over de verdeling van de kosten van het klimaatbeleid. Met klimaatbeleid bedoelt de WRR drie opgaven:

  • Mitigatie: het reduceren van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen, bijvoorbeeld door onze energievoorziening te verduurzamen.
  • Adaptatie: het aanpassen van de leefomgeving aan klimaatverandering, bijvoorbeeld verhogen van de dijken of het aanpassen van onze steden aan toenemende hitte.
  • Klimaatschade: het herstellen van schade door klimaatverandering, bijvoorbeeld een mislukte oogst door droogte of weggespoelde infrastructuur door overstromingen.

De kosten die gepaard gaan met mitigatie, adaptatie en klimaatschade schaart de WRR onder de noemer “klimaatkosten”. Als klimaatkosten niet rechtvaardig worden verdeeld, dan heeft dat negatieve gevolgen hebben voor het draagvlak voor klimaatbeleid. Daarom is het belangrijk om een rechtvaardige verdeling van die kosten een centrale plaats te geven in het klimaatbeleid.

Verdelingsprincipes

De WRR onderzoekt op welke manieren klimaatkosten op een rechtvaardige wijze verdeeld kunnen worden. Wij onderscheiden tien verdelingsprincipes zoals ‘de vervuiler betaalt’, een verdeling naar draagkracht of  ‘de verduurzamer verdient’. Aan de hand van vier case studies komen we in het rapport tot de conclusie dat het verdelingsvraagstuk in klimaatbeleid vaak niet expliciet aan bod komt bij beleidsontwikkeling. Daardoor blijft onduidelijk voor welk verdelingsprincipe is gekozen, en waarom die keuze is gemaakt.

Daarnaast heeft de WRR een onderzoek laten uitvoeren door I&O Research onder ruim 2.300 burgers. Dat onderzoek liet zien dat burgers een eerlijke verdeling van klimaatkosten belangrijker vinden dan een zo groot mogelijke reductie van CO2-uitstoot. Ook liet het onderzoek dat het afhangt van de concrete klimaatmaatregel welk verdelingsprincipe burgers het meest rechtvaardig vinden.

Of download het rapport.

 

Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis

From IPCC press release

“Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, AR6 Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, released today. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.

Faster warming
The report provides new estimates of the chances of crossing the global warming level of 1.5°C in the next decades, and finds that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach. The report shows that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming.

Every region facing increasing changes
Many characteristics of climate change directly depend on the level of global warming, but what people experience is often very different to the global average. For example, warming over land is larger than the global average, and it is more than twice as high in the Arctic. The report projects that in the coming decades climate changes will increase in all regions. For 1.5°C of global warming, there will be increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons. At 2°C of global warming, heat extremes would more often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health, the report shows.

But it is not just about temperature. Climate change is bringing multiple different changes in different regions – which will all increase with further warming. These include changes to wetness and dryness, to winds, snow and ice, coastal areas and oceans. For example:

  • Climate change is intensifying the water cycle. This brings more intense rainfall and associated flooding, as well as more intense drought in many regions.
  • Climate change is affecting rainfall patterns. In high latitudes, precipitation is likely to increase, while it is projected to decrease over large parts of the subtropics. Changes to monsoon precipitation are expected, which will vary by region.
  • Coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century, contributing to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas and coastal erosion. Extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by the end of this century.
  • Further warming will amplify permafrost thawing, and the loss of seasonal snow cover, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and loss of summer Arctic sea ice.
  • Changes to the ocean, including warming, more frequent marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, and reduced oxygen levels have been clearly linked to human influence. These changes affect both ocean ecosystems and the people that rely on them, and they will continue throughout at least the rest of this century.
  • For cities, some aspects of climate change may be amplified, including heat (since urban areas are usually warmer than their surroundings), flooding from heavy precipitation events and sea level rise in coastal cities.

For the first time, the Sixth Assessment Report provides a more detailed regional assessment of climate change, including a focus on useful information that can inform risk assessment, adaptation, and other decision-making, and a new framework that helps translate physical changes in the climate – heat, cold, rain, drought, snow, wind, coastal flooding and more – into what they mean for society and ecosystems. This regional information can be explored in detail in the newly developed Interactive Atlas interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch as well as regional fact sheets, the technical summary, and underlying report.

Human influence on the past and future climate
“It has been clear for decades that the Earth’s climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed,” said Masson-Delmotte. Yet the new report also reflects major advances in the science of attribution – understanding the role of climate change in intensifying specific weather and climate events such as extreme heat waves and heavy rainfall events.

The report also shows that human actions still have the potential to determine the future course of climate. The evidence is clear that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main driver of climate change, even as other greenhouse gases and air pollutants also affect the climate.”

Summary for Policymakers