Urban-Act: Integrated Urban Climate Action for low-carbon & resilient cities

Urban-Act supports a transformation towards low-carbon and resilient urban development in the Asia-Pacific. The project assists its government partners to align policies, regulations, and services for urban development with climate and sustainability targets. The project invests in knowledge transfer to strengthen the capacities of institutions, decision makers and technical staff. At the local level, the project supports 14 pilot cities to integrate climate change into urban plans and budgets. Cities are enabled to identify targeted measures for GHG emission reduction and resilience building related to urban mobility, urban environment, building or circular economy and leverage finance for the preparation and implementation of urban climate actions. At the Asia-Pacific level, through UNESCAP and UCLG ASPAC, the project supports advocacy through intergovernmental and city-to-city dialogue and facilitates knowledge sharing to enable scaling-up of projects results and good practices.

Project data

Countries: China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand
IKI funding: 22,625,000.00 €
Included preparation phase: 354,031.24 €
Duration: 04/2022 till 12/2027
Status: open
Political Partner: Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) - Philippines

Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning (DPT) - Thailand

Ministry of Ecology and Environment - China

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) - India

Ministry of Natural Resources - China

Office of the Permanent Secretary for interior

State Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS) - Indonesia
Implementing Partner: Chulalongkorn Universität - Thailand

Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center, Inc. (Clean Air Asia) - Philippinen

Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (iCSC) - Philippines

National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) - China

National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)

Shanghai Urban Planning Development & Research Institute (SUPDRI) - China

Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) - Thailand

Thammasat University

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - India

Tongji University (TJU) - China

TU Dortmund University (TUD) - Deutschland

United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific(UCLG ASPAC)

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) - Thailand

Universität Stuttgart - Deutschland

World Meteorological Organisation

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State of implementation/results

National and Subnational City Climate Finance Assessments tools were launched in July 2024. First results are available for the national level in India and Indonesia and the tools will further be applied in the Philippines and Fiji and in selected partner cities in 2024/2025.
The Regional Training Programme launched in Bangkok in June 2024 featured discussions on multi-level climate action and governance and practical sessions for peer exchange.
The Climate Conscious Cities Webinar Series promotes knowledge and experience sharing in the region, with summaries of the content and participant insights published online at: www.unescap.org/…
The City Enabling Environment Assessment analyzes how conducive the local governance environments in the region are for addressing climate challenges. The analysis recommends options and priorities for policy improvements and the results further contributed to a regional policy brief with a focus on urban resilience prepared by UCLG ASPAC for the ASEAN Mayors Forum 2024.
The analysis of the enabling environment for urban climate action in the Philippines provides a prioritization of alternative policy options. The results will be presented to national government agencies for further deliberative policy processes during the second half of 2024.
The Philippine Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) conducted the first Local Governance Summit in August 2024 including technical sessions on key issues for such as smart infrastructure and the built environment.
Urban-Act joined the India Forum for Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) with the inaugural summit held in August 2024 to raise awareness of urban NbS.
A delegation from Shenzhen, China visited Padang and Medan in Indonesia to expand cooperation between the cities on urban mobility.
A Chinese delegation visited project partners in Thailand to share knowledge on urban climate services, low-carbon transport, and ecological spatial planning.
Urban-Act conducted field surveys in pilot cities in Thailand, developing climate risk profiles and consulting on priority interventions in the context of climate-sensitive spatial planning and development.
The technical dialogue between the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) and the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning (DPT), as a key user of urban climate services, was initiated mid-2024 to explore how climate data can best be utilized in spatial planning at national, regional and urban scale.
In Thailand, Urban-Act co-hosts with the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning (DPT) quarterly knowledge exchange sessions bringing international and national experts, researchers and practitioners together to share experience on climate change adaptation and mitigation in urban planning practices.
The Urban Act project supports the Philippines under the EU Green Economy Program additionally to sustainable waste management and circular economy. The program is part of the Team Europe initiative for the Philippines on Green Economy and is implemented together with UNDP, IFC and Expertise France (EF). The aim is to unlock the potential and improve the framework conditions for a transformation to a circular economy.
A first application from the project has been submitted to the Cities Climate Finance Gap Fund on October 25, 2023. The purpose is a pre-feasibility study in the waste management sector covering six cities (two each from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand) in the context of subregional cooperation under the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle Initiative, leveraging up to EUR 200,000 per country for (early) project preparation support.