City Promise Formulation:

Defining low emission

development strategies
August 17, 2022

Revised as of 01 August 2022

OBJECTIVES:
1. To discuss the key characteristics of a “City Promise”
2. To introduce the formulation process and key
elements of a “City Promise”
What is a “City Promise”?
A City Promise outlines a local government’s and
their citizens’ climate pledges and actions to reduce
GHG emissions thereby contributing to the efforts of
their national governments and the global community
in meeting the Paris Agreement goals.
What are the key characteristics of a “City Promise”?

UN-Habitat’s Guiding Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate &

Principles for City Climate Energy Common Reporting Framework
Action Planning
What are the key characteristics of a “City Promise”?

Ambitious GHG reduction targets

Integrated and cross-sectoral
Inclusivity
Actionable for all partners
Measurable and verifiable
 Ambitious GHG reduction targets
• “Ambitious” can be subjective and
each local government should
define its own level of ambition
depending on its political
willingness, national context, and
existing resources.
• The target year shall be the same
as, or sooner than, the target
adopted in the NDC.
• It is recommended that cities use
“base year emissions goal” and
“baseline scenario goal” in their
commitment to ensure a realistic
and accurate baseline.
 Ambitious GHG reduction targets
Base year emissions Base year emissions

Case of Seoul: Through the Promise of

Case of Pasig: Pasig City aims to achieve
Seoul, SMG pledged to reduce 20 million
8% (182,433.51 tCO2e) GHG reduction by
tons of carbon emissions by the end of
2025 and a 20% (296,454.46 tCO2e) GHG
2030 and 10 million tons by the end of
reduction by 2030 relative to its 2017
2020. This is equivalent to respectively 40%
baseline emissions.
and 25% of Seoul’s 2005 GHG emissions.

Pasig’s baseline emissions

Seoul’s baseline emissions reference year
reference year Interim GHG emissions
GHG emissions reduction by 2030 reduction target by 2025.
(same target year as NDC)
Interim GHG emissions reduction GHG emissions reduction by
target by 2020. 2030 (same target year as NDC)
 Integrated and cross-sectoral
• Addressing climate change is a complex challenge therefore the City Promise breaks it down
into different sectors: energy, transport, waste, air quality, water, ecology, urban agriculture,
health, DRRM.
• Therefore, the City Promise requires the involvement of multiple city government
departments or agencies.

Case of Seoul: The Promise of Seoul includes 10
key policies that cover all areas of climate
change, from energy to urban agriculture, to
ensure the horizontal integration among
departments. It captures GHG emissions
reductions potential from different (e.g.
transport) other than the Climate Change and
Environment Bureau, which hosted the Promise
of Seoul tasks force team.
Case of Pasig: The Promise of Pasig includes
9 urban sectors. To operationalize the
actions under these sectors, the City
Climate Core Team of Pasig City
(formulated through Executive Order No.
08, series of 2017) was revived and
mobilized the participation of at least 15
city departments.
Integrated and cross-sectoral

Promise of Seoul Promise of Pasig

 Integrated and cross-sectoral

The City Climate Core

Team is chaired by the City
Mayor and Head of the
Committee on Ecology &
Environmental Protection.
CENRO serves as the
executive officer and
engages the participation
of various offices such as
CSWMO, CDRRMO, City
Engineering Department,
CPDO, CTDMO, PIO.

Proposed Enhanced Climate Change and GHG Management Council (Climate Core Team) of Pasig
City, Addendum to E.O. No. 08, series of 2017
 Inclusivity
• Local governments shall identify and map out the stakeholders that can support in
designing and implementing the City Promise and actively include them in the process.
• Include stakeholder engagement can also generate ownership, encourage cross-sectoral
collaboration, spark complementary action, increase awareness, and build capacity.
 Inclusivity
Case of Seoul: 3.5 million out of 10 million
citizens took part of the various initiatives
under the umbrella of Promise of Seoul.
This was possible thanks to the mature civic
participation culture that the local
government nurtured since mid-1900s.
Case of Pasig: 410 stakeholder group
representatives* were engaged in a series
of public consultations to formulate the City
Promise of Pasig.
*National government, local government, barangays, private sector, senior citizens,
persons with disabilities, academe, interest groups, cooperatives, youth, etc.
 Actionable for all partners

• The City Promise should include various types of actions (policies, programs, projects,
activities) which include sufficient detail so that they are actionable by the appropriate
stakeholder groups.
For each action, the plans should provide the following:
❑ Brief description of the action
❑ Assessment of energy saving, renewable energy production, and GHG emissions
reduction potential
❑ Financial strategy for implementing the action
❑ Implementation status, cost, timeframe
❑ Implementing agencies
❑ Stakeholders involved in planning and implementation of the action
 Actionable for all partners
Case of Seoul Brief description

Urban sector

Priority areas

Targets
 Actionable for all partners
Case of Seoul

Specific action plans

of three stakeholder
groups: city
government,
businesses, citizens
 Actionable for all partners
Urban sector
Case of Pasig

Strategy & objective Brief

description

Primary action
 Actionable for all partners
Case of Pasig

Sample pledged actions by

the city government,
businesses & institutions,
citizens collected during
public consultations and
screened by the City
Climate Core Team
 Actionable for all partners
Case of Pasig
Implementation
instrument: infrastructure,
research, partnerships,
Stakeholder groups to be capacity building,
involved advocacy, process
streamlining, policy and
ordinance, knowledge
sharing and dissemination

Specific policies, programs,

projects, activities,
 Actionable for all partners
Case of Pasig

Budget information per

City Budget Office and
tagged according to CCET
 Actionable for all partners
Case of Pasig
 Measurable and verifiable

• A City Promise shall define the key performance indicators that will be used to track performance of
the policies or actions over time.
• To continuously monitor implementation, the progress of the climate targets and action plans shall be
reported to a national reporting platform (e.g. NICCDIES) and/or third party reporting platform (e.g.
CPD-ICLEI Track).

Case of Seoul and Pasig:

Each action area of the
City Promise identifies at
least one concrete
performance indicator to
monitor the progress of
the planned actions
Measurable and verifiable

• It is recommended that the city’s

inventory to be updated every 2 to
3 years and a management review
for climate action to be scheduled
biannually.
• The city is strongly encouraged to
periodically and publicly disclose
the implementation status of the
City Promise to platforms such
NICCDIES and the CDP-ICLEI Track.
City Formulation Process
Creating a City Rapid assessment Setting mitigation Publication,
Climate Core Team of PAPs and Stakeholder goals and defining adoption, and
and National city-level GHG engagement strategies and implementation of
Advisory Group* inventory actions the City Promise

Discerning and bridging

the results of Steps 1 &
2 by the City Climate
Core Team
Questions for participants:
Does your local government have an existing group that is similar to a City Climate Core Team?
❑ Yes
❑ No
❑ I don’t know

Should your city decide to formulate its own City Promise, which urban sectors would be most
relevant in your context? Select all that apply.
❑ Energy
❑ Transport
❑ Air quality
❑ Waste
❑ Water
❑ Urban agriculture
❑ Ecology
❑ Health
❑ DRRM
 Contact Us
Units 3-6 Manila Observatory
Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights,
Quezon City, 1108
Philippines
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