Context:
China’s unprecedented economic growth over the past 35 years has had a lasting impact on the world as we know it today, and it is likely that in the years to come, Chinese urbanisation will continue to have a significant impact. It is important that this urbanisation will be implemented in a way that will not come at a huge cost to the environmental and social sustainability of the cities, and the world. The Chinese government has taken on the challenge and is introducing bold measures to improve the quality of life in cities and reduce resource consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are still severe shortcomings in truly achieving sustainable, low-carbon development.
Many EU member states have in the past undergone a process of rapid urbanisation and are facing similar challenges. Most notably, European cities are currently in a transition to low-carbon economies. Mutual exchange of experience on urban development can thus create significant win-win situations.
Objective:
Chinese cities adopt energy and resource efficient ecological solutions to meet the environmental targets defined in the 12th and 13th Five Year Development Plans coherent with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), through experience sharing on sustainable urbanization between Europe and China.
Approach:
The EU-China Eco Cities Link (EC-LINK) is a key component in the Partnership. It will apply a multi-dimensional approach to assist China with implementing its urban low-carbon development framework:
• At the local level, it will support pilot projects and will train mayors, local experts and other policy makers. Moreover, EC-LINK will also provide local policy makers and technical staff with toolboxes and general advice for low-carbon development in order to facilitate implementation.
• At the provincial level, it will create regional support structures based on territorial coordinators: decentralized authorities, such as regions, provinces or networks of local authorities.
• At the central level, it will provide expertise in drafting and implementing policies and legislation related to low-carbon development of cities and involving the business community in implementing pilot projects.
• At the international level, it will facilitate the establishment of bilateral urban low-carbon partnerships between Chinese and European cities and will support an active dialogue among multiple EU and international cooperation programs.
• It will provide an IT platform designed to improve and sustain the dialogue among major Chinese and European stakeholders involved within the urban sustainable development sector.
• It will spread the knowledge on green financial opportunities supporting Chinese municipalities, through the organization of international workshops and training, in accessing international finance mechanisms for the development of eco/low carbon projects for sustainable urbanization.