ICLEI Updates From Surabaya At HABITATIII #H3PrepCom3

here is an overview of 27 july and early hours of 28 July

1- Side event of ICLEI and University Tekniki Malaysia, focusing on advancing sustainability  of  Asian cities and regions effectively reflected the diversity of topic in the region through its multinational (Malaysia, S. Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Germany, India), multilevel (local, regional, national governments), multistakeholder (governments at all level – research and academia – finance partners) structure. Mr. Datuk HJ. Mohammad Bin Mentek, Secretary General of Malaysian Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government and Head of Malaysian Delegfation at HabitatIII PrepCom3 in Surabaya also delivered a warm and encouraging closing remark, congratulating all partners and inviting an active collaboration in the preparation of World Urban Forum9 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February 2018.

2- Around midday, Co-Facilitators circulated a revised version of draft NUA as of 27 July. The text had revised paragraphs except para.8 (related to Right to the City)  and Section C Follow-u and Review (as Eu and Colombia noted that informal informals had not reached a conclusion yet.) After brief exchanges, Co-facilitators announced to reconvene at 17:00

3- At the plenary of Main Committee at 17:00, many Member States expressed frustration and dissapointment on the process, in particular lack of clarity on how to close agreed paragraphs, reflection of already communicated texts and next steps. While some delegations expressed general views, some delegations continue to submit new and additional textual proposals. The discussions also started to focus on the way forward between Surabaya and Quito as it became clear that the draft will not be adopted in Surabaya. Meanwhile no new text was communicated on Section.C

conflict

4- In the early hours of the morning, Co-Facilitators convened the plenary, suggested to circulate a new text in the next hour in their personal capacity taking into account the views and results of Section C informals and invited delegations to consider an informal informal in New York City at UN HQ in early September. There were no objection to this proposal.

5- Around 02:30 on 28 July, Secretariat 2 documents; draft report of the Main Committee (negotiations on draft NUA) and draft report of the PrepCom3.

6- Around 03:30 on 28 July, first Main Committee and then PrepCom3 Plenary convened and adopted the circulated documents, with subject to further updates by the Rappertouer as appropriate. Meanwhile, Joan Clos in its capacity as the Secretary of the Conference announced new webportal to announce Quito Action Plan and invited all stakeholders to upload their commitments. During the closing remarks, delegations expressed appreciations to Co-Facilitators, Indonesia government as well as people and Mayor of Surabaya.

7- The PrepCom3 concluded at 04:30 on 28 July Thursday.

7- It has to be noted that altough para.12 of the UNGA Resolution 70/210 (Rules of Procedures of Prep Com) reinvited Bureau of PrepCom3 to circulate a draft outcome document at least 6 months before the Conference, neither the Report of the Main Committee nor the prepCom3 Report included any reference to any official document with appropriate documentation number. The Conference website were uploaded with link to documents of 6 May, 18 June and 18 July, without any official document number.

8- As of 28 July 14:00 Indonesia time,  the Conference website did not contain any link to the Report of the Main Committee nor any draft text as of 27 July. https://www.habitat3.org/prepcom3/papersmart

9- Around 10:00 on 28 July Thursday, the H3 Secretariat circulated a new draft NUA as of 28 July. The text is attached. It has to be noted that the document contains no information whether this is a product of Co-facilitators. The version as of 28 July contained significant changes to version as of 27 July, including a string dedicated paragaraph 7 in the Declaration recognizing 2nd local and regional governments and their 2nd World Assembly. There are some significant changed in other sections and a totally new Section C Follow-up and Review is also included which seemed to be a convergence document between version as of 18 july and proposals of EU presented on 26 July, containing numerous brackets as well as 2 options in para.164 regarding options the wwqy forward for strengthening UNhabitat. The reference to an International Multistakeholder Panel on Sustainable Urbanization, the only innovative outcome expected to  be announced as n outcome/legacy of H3 remained in the version of as of 18 july was also removed in this version 28 July.

10- It may be possible to expect an informal informal meeting to be convened in NYC at UN HQ in the first week of September.

Here is a brief coverage of 26 July Tuesday

1- In the morning, Co-facilitators met with stakeholders. GTF speakers highlighted the need to engage local and regional governments appropriately in the implementation as well as follow-up and review.

2- At the Plenary, stakeholders delivered their official statements. Intervention of local and regional governments was delivered by Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Municipal President, Municipal Council Of Seberang Perai, Malaysia; President, Malaysian Association of Local Authorities (MALA); Member, ICLEI Global Executive Committee. Follow the links to reach the text and video of the intervention.

3- Follow the link to access the ppt of ICLEI session at Urban Speakers Corner.

4- The main committee continued hearings from Member States for their inputs to Declaratiuon, Section A Commitments, B- Means of Implmentation. The committee reconvened at 19:30 to focus on section C Follow up and review. The African Union reiterated its position for the strengthening of UNhabitat and its new mandate for the New urban Agenda. US and EU reiterated their wish to focus on the substance of NUA at  H3 and continue discussions on its further follow up and review in connection with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as UN General Assembly related process. Specific and substantial textual proposals were presented by the EU. G77/China responded with a positive spirit for a convergence on main subjects.

5- Informal informal negotiations continue over the night, including a stocktaking plenary by Co-Facilitators at 03:30. G77, EU, US reported about progress achieved so far and asked for additional time. Co-facilitators proposed to reconvene the plenary at 11.00 on 27 July wednesday and commit to share a revised version of the sections on Declaration, Sections A and B and results from the informal informals from Section C on follow and review.

Things to follow on 27 July Wednesday

1- A partial calendar of official negotiation sessions is available on conference homepage

2- Main committee is planned to reconvene at 11:00.

2- ICLEI and Universiti Tekniki Malaysia will host their joint side event “Advancing Sustainability of Asian Cities and Regions” at 13:30 at Crystal Room:4, including speakers from Seberang Perai, Seoul Metropolitan Government and Iskender Regional Authority. Citynet will convene another side event at the same time at Crystal Room:1

3- Timing of closing plenary  will be announced during the day based on the progress achieved in the negotiations. General Assembly of Partners will convene at 1830 and throughout the day an additional session of Co-Facilitators with stakeholders may be scheduled.

Here is a summary of 25 July Monday

1- PrepCom3 agreed on modalities and agenda of H3 in Quito,

2- Chile representative assigned as the Acting Co-Chair in Surabaya in place of Ecuador,

3- Plenary started to hear general comments from Parties, no time left for Stakeholder interventions, will continue on Tuesday

4- Main Committee established to conduct informals on draft outcome, held its first session, started hearing views of parties on the Declaration, but suspended the session upon request of G77/China, will re-convene on Tuesday.

5- UCLG launched GTF publication summarizing H3 journey at Urban Speakers Corner

6- Cities Alliance side event convened at lunch time

7- City of Surabaya hosted cultural event (personally speaking, this was the best organization i had ever attended at an intergovernmental conference since 2002, hats-off to Mayor and People of City of Surabaya)

8- A very inspiring article is published at Citiscope by Ulrich Graute on UN negotiations and engaging local governments. Another important coverage by Gregg Scruggs is also available. Another Op-Ed is released by Nicola Paula at ENB prior to the start of the Surabaya

and things to look for 26 July Tuesday

1- an informal daily programme of negotiations is released at H3 PrepCom3 homepage, that contains a partial coverage of all event.

2- Plenary for statements will start at 10:00 at level:3 (expected to offer slots for Mayor Groups and Other Stakeholders), main committee will start at 10:00 at level:4

3- GAP Prep meeting will convene at 08:30 at level:4, Co-facilitators will meet with Major Groups and Other Stakeholders at 09:00 at level:4

4- Transport Day will convene at Hotel Sheraton between 13:00 – 17:00. ICLEI member City of Johannesburg will share updates on Johannesburg Ecomobility Festival held in September 2015 at the closing plenary.

5- At the lunch time, WRI will convene its side event

6- ICLEI will host a session at Urban Speakers Corner at Exhibit area at the ground floor at 15:30. Speakers areMaimunah Mohd Sharif, Municipal President, Municipal Council Of Seberang Perai, Malaysia; President, Malaysian Association of Local Authorities (MALA); Member, ICLEI Global Executive Committee and Emani Kumar, Regional Director, ICLEI South Asia Secretariat; Deputy Secretary General, ICLEI World Secretariat. Title is “Globalizing Integrated Transformative Actions to Ensure Sustainability of the Urban World 2030”

6- At 19:30, Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly of Partners will convene at Crystal Room

/YUNUS ARIKAN

Source: ICLEI

For immediate Release GaiaDoc.org

For immediate Release

GaiaDoc.org has launched a fit for purpose replacement text for #COP21 #Paris2015 Urgent International Draft

EMERGENCY CLIMATE CHANGE PREVENTION CHARTER (CCPC) .pdf

For-immediate-Release-GaiaDoc

Source: GaiaDoc.org

 

 

7 MARCH – Join the Car-Free Work-Day Bloc @ Time To Act National Climate March!

In our efforts to motivate as many people as possible to leave the car for a day and join in our Car-Free Days, Climate Change Centre Reading (CCCRdg) has taken a huge lap forward by campaigning for Car-Free Days until the end of the year.

Yes, we are proud of announcing CCCRdg supporting the Join the Car-Free Work-Day Bloc @ Time To Act National Climate March!

BREAKING: Please see our press release below, we hope you will find the piece interesting,

Climate Change – It’ s time for decisions now! not waste billions on campaigning.

The Future of Places

Join us at the Car-Free Work-Day Bloc on the Time to Act Climate demonstration on 7th March!

Details

12.30pm, Saturday 7th March

Lincoln’s Inn Fields [map]

Nearest tube: Holborn

Join the facebook group here

Let´s work together to help achieve this, it will be an important step in solving and laying a just and fair developing pathway, switching to zero carbon fuels.

Learn about the fossil fuels problems, that causing climate change in our local community and further afield, and what we in the local community are doing, and can do to help tackle such matters.

2015 CHANGE will honour the 2-degree Celsius limit as a limit to safeguard the world environment in Togethernessship 😉

BREAKING: CCCRdg has launched a campaign for a national “Monthly Car-Free Work-Day in the UK”  

A regular car-free work-day in Reading and UK could fuel an International monthly Car-Free Work-Day which could be an astonishing example of traffic development and public realm. Reading has great potential to embrace the sustainable pathway and become a British role-model in climate change (the air is our all urban common) to honour a successful climate change agreement taking place in Paris December 2015.

Climate Change – Urban areas most at risk

Climate Change – Urban areas most at risk

A new report has established that cities now contribute to 37-49% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The report also reveals that urban infrastructure accounts for over 70% of global energy consumption.

climate Change: Implications for Cities

The report entitled Climate Change: Implications for Cities – Key Findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (Cities Summary) includes the following conclusions;

• Many emerging climate change risks are concentrated in urban areas.

• Climate change impacts on cities are increasing.

• The world’s urban population is forecast to almost double by 2050, increasing the number of people and assets exposed to climate change risks.

According to ICLEI President David Cadman, “This Cities Summary succinctly summarises the key implications for urban areas. It is a must read for all local decision-makers”. The report was published jointly by The University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Judge Business School and ICLEI with the support of the European Climate Foundation.

To read the complete summary click here

The European Commission has long recognised the important role that local authorities play in improving the environment, and the significance of their high level of commitment to genuine progress. The European Green Capital Award has been conceived as an initiative to promote and reward these efforts.Bristol, European Green Capital 2015 has demonstrated a long term commitment to improving its urban environment. The city has been working since 2000 to reduce its contribution to climate change by developing and delivering a series of strategies and action plans, such as the Bristol Climate Protection and Sustainable Energy Strategy and the Local Transport Plan to 2026.

via European Green Capital.

Will Reading be the European Green Capital 2017?

Rdg CAN!

– Have a well-established record of achieving high environmental objectives.

– Commit to ambitious goals for future environmental improvement and sustainable development.

– Inspire other cities through new ideas, best practices and experiences.

LOGO CE_Vertical_EN_quadri

Will your city be the European Green Capital 2017? The Commission has launched its search for the 2017 European Green Capital. The European Green Capital Award recognises cities that are at the forefront of environmentally-friendly urban living. The..

Read more here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Will-your-city-2017_Web-Copy-F01.pdf

5 ways for companies to improve their energy efficiency

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has come out with report on ” An energy efficient Sweden ” , which proposes ways to improve their environmental performance . The advice is aimed at both the public and politicians. It emphasizes the practical work of improving energy efficiency in Sweden is worse than it should be, then we have good conditions for such work.

For businesses , the following advice:

Show leadership, set goals and follow up . Without management support and follow-up are not prioritized energy efficiency. Sufficient resources in terms of time and qualified staff to work in a structured and systematic manner absent.

Knowledgeable and dedicated employees needed. To succeed in the practical implementation needed people in your own organization who have knowledge and expertise on both energy use and operational processes and systems.

Create structure and systematize . Management often fulfill a vital function in many companies to structure and systematize the work on energy efficiency and maintain management’s commitment and priority.

Act proactively and dismissal capital. Often a certain energy efficiency is achieved without large investments. As the question made ??visible and prioritized investment funds can be allocated as necessary to ensure profitable operations are carried out. To consider investing in a life cycle perspective is necessary .

Creating sustainable vision for the future and look beyond their own operations. A company’s vision for the future should also include energy use. Energy efficiency is created not only in their own operations. To focus on how products and services can help increase energy efficiency in the next stage is equally important.

Reading 2050: Revealing Reading’s Potential

Following our inaugural Reading 2050 networking event for young property professionals, this report examines Reading’s standing in the UK, areas where the town could be improved and ideas for development going forward.

Barton Willmore have compiled thoughts and ideas from the June networking event alongside some interesting statistics on Reading in the Reading 2050 Introductory Report.

READING2050 REVEALING READING´S POTENTIAL
READING2050
REVEALING READING´S POTENTIAL

You can download the report here: http://www.bartonwillmore.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/GA-Reading-research-doc-version-3D-low-res.pdf

 

UN-Water – Water Thematic Consultation report

This report is a result of sifting through and distilling the hundreds of contributions made in response to dozens of practical questions raised during the 6-months “World We Want” stakeholder consultation. Recommendations emerged for a new development framework that calls for reducing inequalities around water through rights-based approaches to service provision and governance. These approaches should integrate the management of water resources and wastewater, and improvements in water quality, requiring all sectors to break out of their narrow silos.

SIWI

Download the report here: The Post 2015 Water Thematic Consultation (69 pages)
http://www.unwater.org/downloads/Final9Aug2013_WATER_THEMATIC_CONSULTATION_REPORT.pdf

via Welcome to UN-Water.

OECD: Green Growth in Stockholm, Sweden

OECD conference in Stockholm on green growth

Green Growth in Cities was the theme of a conference arranged by OECD in Stockholm. Based on the reports which were launched, the conference elaborated on the potential of cities and regions around the world to foster economic growth and reduce environmental impact through innovative policies and political commitment.

H.R.H Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden was present during the Green Growth in Cities – Urban Evolution conference in Stockholm, here with Sten Nordin, the Mayor of Stockholm and Yves Leterme, deputy secretary general of the OECD.

renewable energy, green certificates, climate change mitigation policy, climate change, carbon tax, greenhouse gas emissions

Stockholm was the subject of a case study, find it here

 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Sweden has developed an extensive and sound policy framework to limit greenhouse gas emissions. It is now one of the OECD countries with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per capita and it has successfully managed to decouple GDP growth from emissions growth. However, as Sweden has already significantly lowered its greenhouse gas emissions, the cost of reducing them further could be very high, making it urgent to improve the cost-effectiveness of Sweden’s climate change policies. A strategy to enhance the cost-effectiveness of this policy framework would include: i) reducing differences in carbon prices between sectors and increasing even further the role of market-based instruments; ii) limiting overlap between targets and policies; iii) raising Sweden’s participation in greenhouse gas emission reductions abroad; and iv) improving the assessments of the policy framework. This Working Paper relates to the 2011 OECD Economic Survey of Sweden (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Sweden).

OECD_Green_Growth_in_Stockholm

Download full report here: OECD: Green Growth in Stockholm (123 pages)

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/pressroom/stockholmbusinessregion/document/download/resource_document/27275

The world’s dirtiest industries

According to a new report backed by the UN, coal mining and cattle ranching are the industries with the hardest impact on the environment. It costs more to fix the damage that these industries cause to the environment than industries generates in profit.

According to the report “Natural Capital at Risk – The Top 100 Externalities of Business”, coal power is the most hazardous industry in the world. The damage that the coal industry causes to the environment and on human health is primarily from greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. In East Asia the regional coal industry generates 443 billion dollars annually, and the North American this industry generates a profit of 247 billion dollars annually, according to the report. In both cases, the costs of preventing and repairing the damage that the industries have on the environment and on human health exceed the profits generated, as reported by the Environmental Leader.

Livestock farming in South America ranks as the second most dangerous environmental sector, because of the negative effect that cattle have on the sea, lakes and soils. The environmental cost amounts to $ 354 billion annually, while livestock production generates $ 18 billion annually.

NATURAL-CAPITAL-AT-RISK

Download the report here (45 pages):
http://www.teebforbusiness.org/js/plugins/filemanager/files/TEEB_Final_Report_v5.pdf