For half a decade UN-Habitat, through its Cities and Climate Change Initiative and Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme, has assisted the urban areas, both formal and informal, of the City of Honiara in the Solomon Islands with adaptation planning. Assistance began in 2012 with a participatory analysis of vulnerability and adaptive capacity.

This Final Evaluation of the Urban-LEDS Project was carried out during the period May – September 2016. The Objective of the Project is “to enhance the transition [of cities] to low emission urban development in emerging economy countries.”  The Project began in March 2012 and ended in March 2016 (48 months). The total Project budget provided by the European Commission was €6.7 million Euros.

The primary purpose of this Final Evaluation assesses the achievements of the overall Objective “Cities in emerging economy countries adopt Urban Low Emission Development Strategies,” the Expected Accomplishment (EA), the two sub-EAs, and results. Sub-EA 1 of the Project was to adapt a national-level approach to city-level low emissions strategies development. This was to be accomplished through the preparation of LED strategies in Project Model Cities and where possible in Satellite Cities. The evaluation will also focus on Project results to establish, by design, a vertically integrated project approach that addresses climate change issues between different levels of government. This includes advocacy and support activities at the global level. The Expected Accomplishments of the Urban LEDS Project have been achieved in an outstanding manner.

Following a two year process, UN-Habitat was accredited to the Adaptation Fund in August 2015. It has since successfully submitted a concept note entitled, “Enhancing the climate and disaster resilience of the most vulnerable rural and emerging urban human settlements in Lao PDR”.

The project, currently in the phase of detailed project design, focuses on the southern provinces of Laos where the primary beneficiaries are approximately 47,000 people in 189 vulnerable settlements. In these settlements at least 60 per cent of the population is impoverished, and many represent ethnic minorities. The settlements are affected by floods, droughts, landslides and climate related diseases. Very little basic services exist in these settlements.

The Guiding Principles for City Climate Action Planning reviews typical steps in the city-level climate action planning process in light of a proposed set of globally applicable principles. These principles, shown below, developed through a robust and open multi-stakeholder process, support local officials, planners and stakeholders in climate action planning1. Such plans aim to help cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt low emission development trajectories, as well as adapt to the impacts of climate change and build local climate resilience.

These Guiding Principles are intended to be applied flexibly, together with more detailed ‘how to’ manuals, to help cities more effectively play their role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building climate resilience.

The Urban-LEDS Project “Promoting Low Emission Urban Development Strategies in Emerging Economy Countries” (the Project) was initiated in partnership between United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and ICLEI – Local Government for Sustainability to support low emissions development and address climate change, funded by the European Commission (EC).

ICLEI has the principal project implementation responsibilities working through its ICLEI country offices. ICLEI implemented the project in four countries (Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa). In each of those countries the team worked with two Model Cities that received intensive assistance, as well as between four and six Satellite Cities that engaged to a lesser degree.

A handful of European cities served as resource cities. The team implemented the project through a set of seven “Work Packages”. UN-Habitat has administrative responsibilities and participated in focused technical activities providing project support. The Objective of the Project is “to enhance the transition to low emission urban development in emerging economy countries.”

This is to be accomplished through the preparation of LED strategies in Model Cities and where possible in Satellite Cities through capacity building, city-to-city exchanges, hands on actions including emissions inventories to identify priority areas for interventions, and to understand, assess, design and implement LED technical and behavior change action activities in target cities. The total Project budget provided by the EC is6,700,000.00 Euros for a 42 month period from March 2012 to August 2015.

This guidebook on integrating climate change into city development strategies (CDS) attempts to provide a modest input into the effort of unifying two key thematic areas, Climate Change and City Development Strategies. This attempt of climate proofing city development strategies is an ongoing process and requires additional effort by governments, academia, and city development partners worldwide.

The World Bank, the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) collaborated in a Joint Work Programme (JWP) to help cities address challenges related to climate change, aiming to facilitate a coordinated, focused effort targeting cities and climate change.

The JWP captured current knowledge, and supported local and national decision-makers incorporate climate change adaptation and mitigation into their urban planning policies and practices.

A number of deliverables have been produced during this collaboration, including: an online catalogue to facilitate access to knowledge on cities and climate change, various tools for incorporating climate change into urban policies and practices, analytic and assessment guides, handbook for mayors on climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities.y also be useful for professionals in the urban development field in cities where local governments lack specific personnel working on town planning.