Advancing urban climate action and collaboration across Asia

The project, which ran from January 2021 to August 2024, was funded by the EU and promoted strong collaboration, knowledge sharing, and network building between EU experts, organisations, and businesses, with Asian technical partners and city representatives from eight countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, Japan, India and China. As a result of the project's activities and initiatives, cities have committed to reducing the equivalent of 284 million tons of CO2, which is similar to removing 60 million cars off the road annually. In addition, membership to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy has increased by 32% in Asia - with nearly 10 000 participants from more than 800 Asian cities participating in capacity -building initiatives, signalling the region's strong commitment to continued climate action beyond the project.

Building Up Cohesive Commitments and Achievements Together

Deep and insightful collaboration between technical partners and local governments and organisations are at the heart of the project's success. Under the management of the European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) and implementation by DAI - with thematic guidance and support from the European Commission's DG CLIMA, ENER, and the JRC - the project has involved more than 80 experts across the region working collaboratively with relevant ministries from each country, ensuring that the action plans proposed and achievements produced are all endorsed and supported by local authorities. Working closely with local technical partners, organisations, and associations, the project has supported 20 pilot cities in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand in developing their own Climate Action Plans (CAPs), produced in both English and the relevant local languages.

In addition to these CAPs, the project has also supported further implementation initiatives in Japan and the Republic of Korea, such as conducting eight pre-feasibility studies for climate projects in Japan and producing a national handbook for reporting Greenhouse gas inventories across local governments in the Republic of Korea. In China, various climate resiliency and adaptation workshops were conducted, which included hundreds of Chinese city officials and deepened the knowledge exchange between the EU and Chinese representatives.

Overall, the GCoM Asia project has strengthened capacity-building across the region by organising 65 workshops and trainings at both local and national levels, cultivating a strong peer-to-peer collaboration between Asian and European cities. As a result of these initiatives, all countries except for India have now adopted an internationally standardised methodology based on the IPCC's framework, which supports the UNFCCC's global data aggregation and country reporting.

Supporting Climate Finance Funding and Promoting Business Opportunities

Financing climate action is instrumental, and as such, the project has assisted 55 cities in applying for climate finance funding, which ranged from guiding cities who are self-funding their CAPs using the GCoM methodology to supporting applications to funds such as the GCoM City Climate Finance Gap Fund, the ICLEI TAP Fund, and the Bankable Cities fund, as well as engaging with organisations such as the European Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank, C40, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency to further explore climate financing mechanisms.

The project has also organised several business matchmaking events between EU companies and Asian local governments, enabling city representatives to plan significant capacity-building goals and activities, using the latest European technology and solutions as inspiration, and further strengthening their commitment to climate action in their cities.

Inspiring Others in Developing Concrete Climate Solutions

One of the key achievements of the GCoM Asia project is the development of four major pilot projects across Southeast Asia: Tangerang (Indonesia), Iskandar Puteri (Malaysia), Bangkok (Thailand), and Hue (Vietnam). According to Andreas Roettger, Head of the EU FPI Regional Team for Asia-Pacific, these pilot projects are "a proof-of-concept for economic and financial viability and feasibility of climate action," and are crucial milestones for advancing climate action in Asia.

In Tangerang, twelve public office buildings, schools, and local health facilities were selected for a comprehensive energy audit and assessment, which revealed potential energy savings of 57% for office buildings and 36% for schools and health facilities. In Iskandar Puteri, plans to create a 2.2km walkable and cyclist-friendly city corridor (inspired by European examples, in particular Copenhagen) were developed in collaboration with city authorities, and is aiming to reduce reliance on private vehicles across the 250,000-people suburban township. In Bangkok, a feasibility study was conducted for the implementation of an innovative bubble curtain technology, first developed in the Netherlands, that may be deployed in Bangkok's canals as a cost-effective and sustainable solution to combat plastic pollution in the city's waterways. In Hue, nature-based urban design solutions were proposed to protect the Hen Dune riverbank from future flooding and erosion, with technical plans and studies developed by Belgian and Vietnamese technical partners in close cooperation. These pilot projects were developed with technical assistance from a diverse community of EU experts, using the quadruple-helix cooperation toolkit from the EU-funded IURC project. They represent, as Roettger described, "blueprints for inspiring others to follow in the path to climate action."

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