A stakeholders meeting of the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) in South East Asia took place back-to-back to the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Kuala Lumpur. The meeting was attended by:
- Natividad Lorenzo, European Union, Foreign Policy Instrument (FPI)
- Paolo Bertoldi, European Commission, Joint Reserach Centre JRC
- Shannon McDaniels, Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) Secretariat
- Bernadia I. Tjandradewi, UCLG ASPAC
- Milag San Jose-Ballesteros, C40
- Hanah Paik, CDP
- Gyengchul Kim, UCLG ASPAC
- Laids Mias-Cea, UN Habitat
- Giorgia Rambelli, IUC Coordination Unit
- Cesar Carreno, ICLEI
- Bernhard Barth, UN Habitat
- Vic Aquitania, ICLEI
- Miriam Badino, ICLEI
- Pablo Gándara, IUC-Asia team
- Steven Shi, IUC-Asia team
- Fatimah Nirwana, IUC-Asia team (Helpdesk)
- Benny Adiasmoro, IUC Asia team (Helpdesk)
Summary of the Meeting:
Welcoming and introductory remarks were delivered by Shannon McDaniels, Director 0f Data Strategy at the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) Secretariat and Paolo Bertoldi from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. Natividad Lorenzo, Task Manager of the EU’s FPI, mentioned that – as agreed among the GCoM partners in 2017 – the IUC SupportDesk has taken up functions as the main focal point supporting the GCoM activities in Asia. She introduced the helpdesk team. Shannon McDaniels explaining the communication activites of the GCoM Secretariat including the global website, which has been linked to the GCoM regional website. She also updated participants on the progress of the GCoM technical group working. Participants exchanged views about the data submission process and the data portal project. It was agreed to support cities in setting GHG baseline inventories as a basis for data collection. Challenges for the data collection in different sectors like transport and waste were discussed.
Paolo Bertoldi from the EU’s JRC introduced some technical advice activities for the EU Commission on energy and climate change, especially to help the European Covenant of Mayors on data collection, assessment, and report mechanism. The JRC has recently initiated training support for Asian cities within the IUC-Asia project.
Pablo Gándara from the IUC project explained that the GCoM Mayors website has been launched by and invited partners to provide news and best practices. He also presented some training activities planned for 2018 including South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. Mr. Gándara also informed the possibility of Melaka State joining the GCoM (talks held with the Honorary Chief Minister of Melaka back-to-back to the WUF).
Bernadia Tjandradewi from UCLG ASPAC referred to the interest of the training centre established by the Ministry of Construction in Vietnam to cooperate with the IUC project. She stated that the centre will make mandatory climate action training activities for local governments. She also referred to the support in Indonesia by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOeF) and the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure. Bernadia highlighted that local governments need to be strengthened by local cities association in the countries. She invited partners to join the ASEAN Mayors Forum in July in Singapore as well as the UCLG ASPAC Congress in Surabaya in September 2018.
Milag Ballestros from C40 mentioned that the organisation is aligning GHG inventories to international standards, especially in cases like Jakarta, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City. She explained the Deadline 2020 Program and highlighted the challenges, such as the absence of data and finances for cities.
Hanah Paik from CDP explained the role of CDP and the experience in supporting Iskandar Malaysia that recently joined the GCoM. She mentioned that Iskandar Malaysia is using a regional development approach to involve the cities and proposed this as good example for other regions to follow. Iskandar can play a leading role in implementing the GCoM in Asia. she said.
Vic Aquitania from ICLEI introduced South East Asia’s experience of cooperation with Melaka State. With regard to Indonesia, he stated that ICLEI has worked with several national authorities including the Ministry of Environment, Bappenas and Home Affairs. He mentioned high barriers for cities in Asia to implement low carbon policies.
Partners discussed the challenges for cities to sign-up to the GCoM, especially in the cased of China.
Next Steps
- Mapping template and specifying GCoM data.
- Next GcoM meeting will be in Singapore during ASEAN Mayors Forum.
- Possibility of training in Gwangju, Korea in the middle of March 2018.
- IUC Training in the end of April in Jakarta.
