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Mega cities and their role in mitigating climate change

by Dr. Peter Hefele

Kick-off Event

Cities and global city networks play a crucial role in combating climate change. Has there been any progress since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015? And what about the situation in Hong Kong? Local KAS RECAP partner "Paris Watch" presented the first results of a new research project.

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In 2017, KAS RECAP launched the "Paris Watch" project together with the HK based NGO Carbon Care Asia. The research project looks into efforts made by Hong Kong government, business and society to translate the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement into local actions. Project leaders John Sayer, Albert Lai and Professor Dr Maria Francesch of Carbon Care Asia presented first results together with Dr Peter Hefele, Director of KAS RECAP. Experts from universities, NGOs, energy companies and private consultancies participated in the discussion.

The results of Paris Watch project should support more ambitious actions towards a more sustainable climate policy in Hong Kong and other global cities. The project will create a "Climate Action Report Card", which shows in a visually attractive way how successful cities are in their efforts against climate change. Paris Watch is further developing a "Climate-Smart Communications Strategy" to raise public awareness and increase pressure on policymakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions more ambitiously. The project will also build a "Climate Readiness Network" with independent organizations at the urban and global levels.

Albert Lai, CEO of Carbon Care, welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance of actively involving all stakeholders in the project. In his welcome speech, Dr Peter Hefele supported the project approach by Paris Watch to strengthen climate policy networks in the region.

John Sayer, research director of the CarbonCare InnoLab, presented an overview of the project and named the target groups and partners of the project:

  • Hongkong local government,
  • other cities in the region,
  • the federal government in Bejing,
  • Member cities of the C-40 Network,
  • Media and Public,
  • Business- and Finance- sector,
  • NGOs and communication groups.
The results in particular policy areas, e.g. in traffic immissions, will be evaluated and ranked against peer cities.

In the second session of the event, Prof. Dr Maria Francesch-Huidobro, Scientific Officer of CarbonCare, explained the data and methodology. Currently, Hong Kong's "ecological footprint" is very high by international standards, particularly in the consumer sector. This issue needs to be urgently approached more by political decision-makers and companies – not least to the fact that Hong Kong is one of Asia's major port cities and air traffic hubs, with significant emissions. And even today, the average temperature, the frequency of heavy rains and the sea level in the city are increasing – as a result of climate change.

Another topic discussed were the current goals of Hong Kong's climate policy. Paris Watch presented a set of indicators to measure progress in Hong Kong's climate policy:

  • Reduction of resource consumption (buildings, electricity, etc.)
  • Adaptation and resilience (to heat, typhoon, etc.)
  • Introduction and construction of systems (strategies, methods etc.)
The participants developed suggestions for further improvement and next steps of the research project.

The results of the Paris Watch study will be published before the COP24 conference in December 2018 in Katowice.

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