Climate Action 2014-2015

CLIMATE FINANCE
ageing infrastructure, fast-growing cities
in the developing world need major
investments to be able to provide basic
levels of service to their rapidly growing
populations.
Furthermore, a system-wide perspective
becomes particularly important as new
infrastructure technologies evolve and
become increasingly connected. For
example, many cities are experiencing
the simultaneous deployment of lowor
zero-energy buildings, renewable
energy technologies suitable for the
urban environment, the development of
smart electrical grids, and the growing
market uptake of electrically-charged
vehicles. Individually, such developments
can generate opportunities for major
reductions in energy use and emissions
while improving resilience. However,
these elements are inter-linked and their
co-evolution needs to be considered
holistically if cities are to fully optimise
the overall benefits of evolving lowcarbon
urban infrastructure systems.
Forward-looking companies that
are committed to sustainability and
experienced in delivering effective
solutions can help cities navigate these
challenges and turn a high-level vision
into practical and implementable action
plans. Business can play a vital role not
only in providing specific infrastructure,
technology, services and financing
solutions, but also in contributing to
the definition of the strategy that will
support the overall optimisation of urban
systems to drive sustainability.
Many leading businesses are building their
long-term strategies around providing
integrated solutions to complex problems
facing the world’s cities. A number of these
solution types are focused on improving
the efficiency of existing infrastructure
(e.g. smart grids, smart water networks,
intelligent transport systems) hence
delivering major environmental benefits,
improved operational performance, while
avoiding or delaying the need for new
major capital investments.
EARLY ENGAGEMENT OF THE
PRIVATE SECTOR
Cities have long sourced solutions
and services from the private sector
and have engaged businesses to
design, build, operate and maintain
major infrastructure. However, under
this traditional model, businesses are
generally involved at a later stage in the
city’s planning/implementation life cycle,
when the opportunities to promote
innovation and provide valuable strategic
input are limited.
There are several common factors that
appear to limit early engagement with
businesses, including:
Lack of suitable engagement processes.
Cities may not have processes in place
that enable strategic engagement
with business early in the planning
cycle, or they may be unsure of how
such a process could be established or
integrated into existing regulations or
stakeholder engagement and planning
processes.
Perception of biased input. City
officials may not have full confidence
that business representatives will give
input that is in the city’s best interests
and assume that they will use an
engagement only as means to pursue
their own commercial interests.
Regulatory constraints. Regulations –
in particular those relating to public
procurement – can limit interactions
between cities and the private sector.
Such regulations are intended to
"Fast-growing cities in the
developing world need major
investments to be able to
provide basic levels of service."
A MAJOR MISSED
OPPORTUNITY
While there are already
excellent examples of cities and
business working together at
the strategic level, this is the
exception rather than the rule,
representing a major missed
opportunity. The WBCSD
strongly believes that cities and
businesses need to develop new
models of collaboration early in
the planning process with a view
to leverage the full capability
of the private sector to drive
innovative solutions and support
effective decision-making.
ensure the integrity and effectiveness
of public procurement and planning
processes. However, these rules (or
more importantly, how they are applied
and perceived in practice) may have
the unintended consequence of losing
valuable input from business that could
benefit the city and its citizens.
The WBCSD established the UII to
advance the urban sustainability agenda
by showcasing the critical role that
business can play as a solution provider,
and by constituting a platform for
collaborative strategic engagement
between cities and business. The UII
brings together 14 leading WBCSD
member companies with an array of
knowledge and skills to help unlock
opportunities for urban authorities to
create cities that are more sustainable,
efficient and livable.
This multi-sector, multi-company group
worked with the following leading
cities: Turku (Finland); Tilburg (The
Netherlands); Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat
and Vadodara in Gujarat State (India);
Yixing (China); Kobe (Japan); Guadalajara
(Mexico); and Philadelphia (USA).
In each city, the UII mobilised a multidisciplinary
team of company experts
to work collaboratively with senior city
officials. These teams took an integrated,
cross-sector approach to analysing the
city’s major sustainability challenges and
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