How to Measure Cities’ Footprint

This blog is written by Edgar Salas Rada / Sandra Mendoza Amatller. 

The Cities Footprint Project aims to strengthen municipal initiatives related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, by assessing carbon and water footprints of municipal governments as organizations and cities as geographical spaces.

The project was launched in 2012 in response to requests by mayors of La Paz, Quito and Lima, and also as a commitment to promoting climate-compatible urban development. The three cities were selected to participate in the project based on their high vulnerability to climate change in terms of water availability, mainly due to the retreat of Andean glaciers and the change in rainfall regimes. The project uses empirical evidence to show that urban spaces offer countless opportunities to promote low-carbon development.

This CAF-led initiative, in coordination with the respective municipal governments, has partnered with the Futuro Latinoamericano Foundation (FLA) and was co-financed by the Climate and Development Alliance (CDKN), AFD and Avina.

Annual carbon and water footprints in cities were assessed using internationally recognized methodologies. Thus, we used the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories, and the Manual of the Water Footprint Network, the creators of the water footprint concept.

The carbon and water footprints of cities were projected for the future, with official data on population growth, GDP growth and other variables. Thus, the results were BAU (Business As Usual), low-carbon growth, and water footprint reduction scenarios, including the actions and investments identified in the action plans.

Based on​carbon and water footprint assessments, action plans were prepared for each city with a view to reducing these footprints, including prioritized investment portfolios. These plans also include: (i) a project portfolio divided by sectors; (ii) footprint projections on the short-, medium- and long-term planning outlooks defined by municipal development plans; (iii) cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis of each footprint reduction project; and (iv) identifying financial sources and technology providers to provide a basis for project design and execution.   Projections based on BAU scenarios and footprint reduction produced targets that were incorporated into the mitigation and adaptation goals that cities are considering going forward.

One of the project’s success factors is the proactive attitude that municipal governments in the cities involved share towards climate-friendly, climate-change-resilient development. All participating municipalities currently have climate change policies, plans, programs and projects aimed at mitigation and adaptation, which have been bolstered by the project.

Also noteworthy is the creation of mechanisms for exchanging experiences during the project, through events and face-to-face workshops and social media, platforms, and others, which has allowed smooth communication between the different stakeholders and with organizations with common interests, thus yielding South-South lessons.

The project is a concrete example that local initiatives to address climate change are paramount to honoring international commitments. The ongoing dialogue with authorities, the private sector and civil society enabled by the project in order to estimate footprints and the design of reduction actions in cities is a local contribution to the fulfilment of the commitments of the Paris Agreement and represents a model with great potential for regional and global replication.

During the six-year implementation, the four-phase Cities Footprint Project has supported policy formulation, action plans and mitigation and adaptation projects in 14 cities in five Latin American countries, and has helped strengthen decision-making processes in urban planning and management, including the climate change variable.

The project has been recognized by the Cities Alliance, at the 2018 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, as one of the top five sustainability initiatives in the world, for its contribution to integration and monitoring of global sustainability agendas (Agenda 2030, Paris Agreement, New Urban Agenda) by cities.

The Cities Footprint Series published in CAF’s Open Knowledge Area summarizes the methodology used, the results attained and the action plans identified for 11 cities in 5 countries, which make up the first three phases of the project.