Climate Positive Development Program
Reinventing Large-Scale
Urban Communities to
Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Redefine Cities
The Climate Positive Development Program was created to meet the dual challenge of rapid urban growth and climate change by setting a new global benchmark for leadership in large-scale urban development. Launched by the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the program supports the development of large-scale urban projects that will demonstrate that cities can grow in ways that are "climate positive," striving to reduce the amount of on-site CO2 emissions to below zero. Specific program deliverables include the creation of a "Climate+" greenhouse gas metric and measurement standard as well as project technical support, business and financial analysis, and partnership facilitation.
Watch Video: Cities Go Climate Positive
Population Growth
Addressing how cities grow is critical to meeting the dual challenge of climate change and urbanization. Half the world’s population lives in cities. This figure is expected to grow to 70 percent by 2050. Today, cities are responsible for more than two-thirds of global energy use and 70 percent of global C02 emissions. Current urban development practices are unsustainable -- and must be reinvented.
The Climate Positive Development Program will integrate and deploy CCI’s full range of 'Cities' programs, including building and outdoor lighting retrofit, advanced waste management , and low-carbon transportation, in the context of large-scale urban developments.
The Program now has 17 participating projects on six continents. Selected for their commitment to leadership, local governments and real estate developers will work with CCI and other experts to implement innovations towards achieving Climate Positive goals, which may include:
- Buildings: develop high efficiency, high performance 'green' buildings
- Energy: 100% clean energy generation
- Transportation: create an interconnected transport system and land-use pattern that shifts from auto to walking, biking and public transit
- Waste: facilitate advanced and integrated waste management strategies to achieve zero-waste communities
- Water: maximize efficiency and implement grey-water systems
- Materials: optimize environmental performance, use local materials
- Sequestration: facilitate integrated environmental and ecosystem management to contribute to closing the emissions cycle on-site.
When the initial 17 projects are completed, nearly one million people will live and work in Climate Positive communities. These communities will be located in: Melbourne, Australia and Sydney, Australia; Palhoça, Brazil; Toronto, Canada; Victoria, Canada; Ahmedabad, India; Jaipur, India; outside Panama City, Panama; Pretoria, South Africa; Johannesburg, South Africa; Seoul, South Korea; Stockholm, Sweden; London, UK; San Francisco, USA and Destiny Florida, USA.
Further Details
C40 Hong Kong Workshop 'Low Carbon Cities for High Quality Living'
5-6 November 2010, Hong Kong
This event will bring cities together to discuss the challenges and opportunities of creating modern, low carbon, high quality, liveable metropolitan centres.
The programme is organised around two themes:
Buildings - with a special focus on retrofitting existing buildings and new build best practice, and
Transport - with a special focus on electric vehicles (EVs)