CITY SUSTAINABILITY: ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING DOCUMENTATION

Abstract

Since cities have become the major human habitat, global sustainability is an issue of urban
sustainability. Only 2.7 percent of the world's land area is occupied by urban communities.
Cities, on the other hand, consume over 75% of the world's resources and are responsible for
80% of greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, it is necessary to examine related city
sustainability concepts and strategies in order to reduce the city's use of natural resources and
waste production while simultaneously improving its livability, allowing it to better fit within the
capacities of local, regional, and global ecosystems while maintaining social equity and welfare.
 1
INTRODUCTION

The Concept of Sustainability and urban sustainability

The global sustainability movement was sparked by the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth
(Meadows, 1972) and the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future (WOCED, 1989). The
World Commission on Environment and Development coined the concept of sustainable
development that is now widely used: as

‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs’.

The first global gathering related to sustainable development, the 1992 United Nations (UN)
Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Earth Summit [Holden, M,
2008], helped popularize the sustainability agenda and debate.

Harmonizing "development" and "environment" is at the heart of sustainable development.

Development, or meeting people's needs, entails resource consumption and waste generation.
The environment has finite resources and ecological ability to absorb, break down, or render
wastes harmless at local, regional, and global dimensions. 2013 (McGrahanahn).

Environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability are the three
components of sustainable development (Figure 1.1). (Harris, JM, 2013):
Harmonizing "development" and "environment" is at the heart of sustainable development.
Development, or meeting people's needs, entails resource consumption and waste generation.
The environment has finite resources and ecological ability to absorb, break down, or render
wastes harmless at local, regional, and global dimensions (McGrahanahn, 2013).

Although it is likely that the greatest environmental fights of the past were waged outside of
cities, environmentalists, governments, and industry today understand the need of including
cities in the global sustainability agenda (Newman, 1999). Yanarella and Levine (Yanarella,
1992) proposed that we can never begin to apply the sustainability process unless we can relate it
to cities from a global perspective. Sustainable cities, they said, are needed as nodes and models
of coherent and integrated sustainable development in sustainable development initiatives. In a
similar spirit, Harper and Graedel [2004] suggested that the concept of sustainability must
succeed or fail in the long run in cities.

Following this, members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have designated
urban growth as a priority for environmental sustainability in the context of unprecedented
anthropogenic climate change (IPCC. 2007).

Material and energy intakes, as well as trash disposal, in a sustainable city do not exceed the
capacity of its surroundings (Kennedy CM, 2007). As a result, the city's usage of natural
resources and waste generation decreases while its livability increases, allowing it to better fit
within the capacity of local, regional, and global ecosystems while also promoting social fairness
and welfare (Farreny, 2009). A comprehensive planning and decision-making framework, as
well as a fundamental shift in conventional values and attitudes, are required to create a
sustainable and livable city (Pacione, 2009). Furthermore, sustainable design concepts must be
included into municipal planning and development legislation, which has yet to happen (Garde,
2010).

1.3. Objectives of the paper

This paper therefore intends to achieve the following;

1. To assess the policy practice concerning the concept of urban sustainability

2. To assess the urban stainability concept in the case of Guangzhou China under the Low-
Carbon City Initiative.
3. To assess impact of Covid-19 in the whole concept of urban sustainability

2
 REVIEWING LITERATURE ON URBAN SUSTAINABILITY;
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE
DOCUMENTATION IN THE WORLD

The importance of the urban environment has been recognized by all important actors, leading to
a succession of global summits and urban sustainable development efforts in recent years (ibid).
Habitat I, the United Nations' first worldwide conference on human settlements, was held in
Vancouver, Canada in 1976. At the time, there was still hope that rapid urbanization could be
delayed or even stopped, and the meeting brought challenges in both rural and urban areas to
international notice (Garde, 2010).

Agenda 21, which was adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, outlined guiding principles for
urban sustainability, including sustainable energy and transportation strategies, affordable
housing, historical and cultural heritage preservation, poverty reduction, community
empowerment, local labor promotion, and fiscal policies that are fiscally responsible (Garde,
2010).. Issues connected to urban living environments were firmly placed at the top of the global
environmental agenda during the UN Habitat II summit in Istanbul in 1996. (Garde, 2010).

Habitat II focused on the urbanization process because cities and towns already housed the bulk
of the world's population. Furthermore, this was the first UN conference to engage municipal
officials in discussions concerning the issues of a rapidly urbanizing world, rather than only
heads of state. The Habitat Agenda, similar to Agenda 21, asks for adequate shelter and
sustainable human settlements for all people, with cities and local governments playing a key
role. (McGrahanahn, 2013).

Six years after Habitat II, the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development put a
special emphasis on local and urban ecosystems in addressing global sustainability. The two
prior local documents were made public, and work on the Local Agenda 21, a local development
agenda, began. A new action agenda called WEHAB (water, energy, health, agriculture, and
biodiversity) was also formed.

Another significant attempt is the World Urban Meeting (WUF), a biannual global forum on
cities that began in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002. (its last session took place in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil). By fostering open dialogue among a diverse set of stakeholders, the UN established the
WUF to investigate rapid urbanization and its effects on communities, cities, economies, and
policies [3]. Since then, there have been a plethora of other local and regional sustainability
projects and activities. For instance, the World Bank recently launched the Eco2Cities Program
[14] and its urban and local governance strategy.

The European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign was founded in 1994 at the end of the
First European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns, which was held in Aalborg,
Denmark. The Agalbo Charter was established by the Conference, which provides a framework
for delivering local sustainable development and encourages local governments to participate in
Local Agenda 21 initiatives. The Campaign is supported by around 2000 local governments
across Europe. Through the implementation of the Aalborg Charter and Aalborg Commitment,
the Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign aims to assist local governments across Europe in
mainstreaming sustainability best practices and bringing about change.

The European Commission introduced the Climate and Energy Package in 2008. Following that,
in 2009, the Covenant of Mayors was signed as a promise by signatory towns and cities to go
beyond the EU's energy policy objectives in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reductions
through improved energy efficiency and cleaner energy production and usage. As a result of a
20% increase in energy efficiency and a 20% proportion of renewable energy sources in the
energy mix, the covenant cities agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.

Another example of international policy for the urban environment is the Multinational Council
for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), which was founded in 1990 and renamed 'ICLEI
Local Governments for Sustainability.' It's an international organization dedicated to long-term
development that includes national and regional local government groups. ICLEI provides
technical assistance, training, and information to local governments to help them build capacity,
share expertise, and implement sustainable development.

Their main idea is that locally planned programs can help achieve local, national, and global
sustainability goals in an effective and cost-effective manner. Local governments are typically
regarded as the most appropriate focal point for organizing and executing environmental policy
in most nations. As a result, city-scale initiatives to prevent climate change are increasingly
being reinforced by national policies.
 3

ANALYSIS OF THE AVAILABLE DATA AND GENERAL FINDINGS & DISCUSSION

3.1. Methods used by this paper

The papers primarily focused on deskwork using qualitative research methods, such as I
literature analysis of relevant publications, government policies, reports, and plans; ii case
analysis to investigate low-carbon cities; and iii content analysis of low-carbon plans to examine
current low-carbon city planning as a component of urban sustainability development in China.
This technique set the framework for data extraction and analysis in the study.

The paper relied mainly on literary method analysis, which focuses on objectively evaluating and
analyzing the material (McGee, 2001). It requires the researcher to locate, categorize, and
summarize information from the literature on the research issue (Berg & Lune, 2004). This thesis
looked at two genres of literature:

• Publications on research: Paper I looked at research on sustainable urban development in China

because I was using Shenzhen as a case study, therefore I chose specific papers that discussed
the low-carbon city.

• Government policies, reports, and plans: I looked at national policies on low-carbon city
development, as well as government reports and municipal low-carbon plans.

3.2. General Discussion on the urban sustainability: The Case of Low-Carbon City
Initiative in Shenzhen City in China

In 2003, the UK government published "Our Energy Future: Creating a Low-Carbon Economy,"
an Energy White Paper (Department of Trade and Industry, 2003). The report promoted a low-
carbon economy, which gave birth to the low-carbon city. Although the term "low-carbon city"
is now commonly used to address global climate concerns, no universal definition exists. "Cities
that divorce economic growth from the use of fossil fuel-based resources by transforming culture
and the economy toward consumption based on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green
mobility," according to the Climate Group (Stephens, 2010). "Towns, cities, and villages that
want to become low carbon with a measurable CO2 emissions reduction target and a concrete
low carbon developing plan, regardless of their size, characteristics, or kind of development,"
according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) definition (APEC, 2011).

In the early 1990s, China's central government took steps to protect the environment, adopting a
sustainability plan backed by regulatory efforts to cut GHG emissions (Yuen, 2009). The 11th
Five Year Plan proposed low-carbon city development as a key national policy in this context
(2006-2010). The country's GHG reduction target for 2015 was set in the 12th Five Year Plan
(2011-2015), which called for a 17 percent decrease in GHG emissions per unit of GDP from the
2010 baseline (The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, 2006, 2011).

In addition, China's State Council issued a medium-term GHG reduction target for 2020,
intending to reduce GHG emissions by 40-45 percent from 2005 (People's Republic of China,
2009). By 2012, over 200 Chinese localities had received government approval for low-carbon
policies and had implemented low-carbon measures. (CSUS, 2012).

In China, a lot of research have looked into low-carbon development. Some of them have looked
at low-carbon policies (Jiang, Sun, & Liu, 2010; Wang, Liu, Xiao, Liu, & Kao, 2011; Xi et al.,
2011; X. Zhang, Shen, Feng, & Wu, 2013) as well as general programs (Xi et al., 2011; X.
Zhang, Shen, Feng, & Wu (Liu, Liu, & Sun, 2011; Lehmann, 2012). Others (Lo, 2014; Yu,
2014) have assessed low-carbon city projects at the municipal level in terms of aims, scope, and
supporting measures. Although the findings of all of these studies have provided an overall
understanding of China's low-carbon city concept, research into planning approaches and
discussion of advantages, disadvantages, and opportunities is limited. .

As previously noted, the Chinese central government suggested low-carbon city development as
a national policy to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, combat climate change, and move
toward sustainable development, and local governments have since adopted similar efforts. This
thesis examines China's present low-carbon city programs and planning methodologies, finds
shortcomings, and offers a metabolic strategy for accounting for physical resources, monitoring
GHG emissions, and including stakeholders in the planning process.

In China, two low-carbon projects are presently running concurrently: the "Low-Carbon City"
program and the "Low-Carbon Eco-City" program. The national pilot areas for these programs
have been chosen from around thirty cities in China's Coastal, Central, and Western regions. This
broad distribution signals a shift from the past emphasis on coastal development, implying that
more cities will be able to study low-carbon options and get state support. The high number of
cities collaborating demonstrates China's commitment to low-carbon development in a variety of
urban settings.

The selected cities formed local administrative entities to monitor low-carbon development and
developed integrated methods to reduce GHG emissions from urban sectors like energy,
transportation, buildings, and waste. Some of the plans were developed in-house by the cities,
while others required international participation. Due to a lack of established standards and
methods, as well as the Chinese top-down planning system, low-carbon planning faces unique
challenges, such as a lack of information about GHG flows, GHG monitoring, and stakeholder
involvement.

3.2. Summary findings from Shenzhen CHINA’s Case

1. Comprehensive urban planning is the token to urban sustainability

Comprehensive knowledge is required in the establishment of low-carbon cities. In China, the

Caofeidian project, which was carried out in conjunction with Sweden, integrated eco-cycle
knowledge into the municipal system and applied technology to garbage collecting systems and
renewable energy sources (Joss & Molella, 2013). This research showed how ecology knowledge
and related technologies may be used in urban planning. However, most Chinese urban planners
lack this information.

One key factor is that in China, most urban planning education is centered on architecture or
other subjects such as geography and forest science. These urban planning training courses began
in the 1950s. They concentrate on detailed urban design skills while ignoring other sorts of urban
development knowledge (Zhao & Zhao, 2009). Due to educational limitations, existing urban
plans, such as Master Plans, are based on the traditional method of determining location, layout,
and other design concerns (Khakee, 1996). This will have to alter in low-carbon city building,
and urban planning will have to incorporate knowledge from other disciplines as IE,
environmental technology, economics, sociology, and policy.

2. Urban sustainability requires global knowledge sharing and Cooperation

China's urban planners have been exposed to Western theories and experiences since the 1920s.
Experts from the Soviet Union provided urban planning skills during the Maoist era in the 1950s.
Planning ideas and methods from the United States and Europe have had a considerable impact
on China's urban development since the 1980s (Khakee, 1996; S. Zhang, et al., 2012).

As previously indicated, several low-carbon city projects have been implemented in

collaboration with Western countries. This multinational collaboration has provided worldwide
technical assistance and experiences that have helped Chinese cities plan for a low-carbon future.
However, because China is different from the rest of the globe, international best practices must
be blended with local conditions. Meanwhile, China's lessons can be applied to other countries.
The first distinguishing feature of China is its population size.

It is the world's most populous country; for example, China's overall population in 2014 was
1367.82 million, with 749.16 million living in cities (National Bureau of Statistics of China,
2015). In 2013, at least 3 million people lived in the low-carbon pilot cities. This enormous
population has concluded that rather than "importing" overseas experiences directly into China,
Western knowledge can only be learned and then tailored to the local environment. This change
can help increase the application of planning theories and procedures to some extent (S. Zhang,
et al., 2012).

For instance, the Eco-Cycle Model was created for Hammarby Sjöstad in Sweden. Tangshan Bay
in China, which has a bigger planned area and population than Hammarby Sjöstad, used the
original concept to create its own garbage system and indicators to adapt to its unique
circumstances (Loftus, 2011; Tangshan Caofeidian Area Tangshan Bay Eco-city Administrative
Committee, 2012). There is also the option of testing and further developing the business outside
of Sweden.

3.3. Covid-19 and the rising concern on urban sustainability

This paper noted that COVID-19 pandemic has already significantly altered urban life. The
number of people moving around has dropped to unprecedentedly low levels. Work from home
became the new normal – for those who could afford it, and for whom it’s even a feasible option
to begin with. The fate of millions of small businesses and workers that make urban centers work
is up in the air. These changes sparked a debate about how cities should be built and, perhaps
more importantly, how they can better respond to current and future crises.

History shows that infectious diseases have been hugely influential in shaping cities. Pandemics,
such as the Black Death, Cholera, and Spanish flu, helped to catalyze innovations like urban
sanitation systems and zoning regulations. Now the coronavirus is adding to the list, influencing
key aspects of urban planning, architectural design, and city management. Integrating health in
urban planning, design and management to make our cities resilient is critical, and the toll of
COVID-19 is making this extremely relevant as well as timely.
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