Abstract
Special Chapter on Green Urbanization in Asia
The last three decades saw an unprecedented rate of urbanization in Asia with over a billion people added to its cities. Today Asia hosts more than half the mega cities of the world. The future global urban growth, largely predicted to be in the southern hemisphere, will see Asia urbanizing even more rapidly. Urbanization comes with both benefits and costs. While urbanized economies create shared economic benefits, they also come with environmental and social costs.
Clearly, Asia is headed for higher levels of urbanization fuelled by economic growth of its countries. In order to ensure a sustainable and climate-friendly development, referred to as ‘green urbanization’, Asian cities need to act now to ensure appropriate policies and interventions that will ensure a better future for the globe. Following the 2012 Human Development Report and the 2009 World Bank Development Report, both of which focused on urbanization, the Asian Development Bank’s 2012 Asia Pacific Report includes a special chapter on ‘Green Urbanization in Asia’ analyzing how rapid and often unplanned urbanization in the region fuelled by the economic progress of Asia, leads to concerns of achieving environmental sustainability. The document critically analyzes what opportunities exists for integration of environmental sustainability principles into the region’s economic policies amidst its continued urbanization and presents recommendations for Asian cities and countries to consider.
The document starts by mapping the unique features of urbanization in Asia. Six features are highlighted. First, that urbanization in Asia is occurring rapidly and will continue to do so revealing that urbanization in Asia took only 95 years compared to 210 in Latin America and 105 in Europe. Second, that the absolute increase in city population is unprecedented with almost half the world’s urbanized population now residing in Asia. To some extent, global urbanization is being driven by urbanization in Asia. Third, in spite of unprecedented expansion of city population, the levels of urbanization are still low compared to rest of world. It will take Asia another four decades to catch up with global urbanization levels, which in turn has policy approach implications. Fourth, Asia is home to 12 of the world’s 23 megacities and this share is likely to increase. Interestingly, relative to rest of the world, Asia shows a much lower level of urban primacy. Fifth, Asian cities are much more dense than cities outside Asia with average density in Asian cities almost ten times the average density of cities in North America and Australia. Asia accounts for the top three most-densely populated cities and eight of the top-ten most-densely populated cities across the globe. Sixth, a significant heterogeneity exists across sub-regions in Asia and across economies in terms of urbanization levels and rate of urbanization.
Much of urbanization in Asia is yet to happen, which means much of urban development, construction and reconstruction is yet to happen. This will have environmental implications globally. More prominent inequality, higher crime rates, and higher cost of living in urban compared to rural areas means that rapid urbanization will have social and socio-economic implications as well. The document explores the environmental and social impacts that urbanization has had and is likely to have in the future in Asia.
Urbanization in Asia has been unhealthy. Asian cities are among the most polluted in the world in terms of air pollution. 60 per cent of the world’s 57 most-polluted cities are in Asia. Increasing vehicles, industrial production, and to some extent dependence on coal based power is exacerbating the problem. This not only leads to increased health costs in urban areas, but also leads to higher accumulation of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, thereby contributing directly to climate change. Per capita emissions in China have already crossed global average, and being the most populous country in the world, this has global climate implications. Increased densities also make cities more vulnerable to catastrophic climate events. Lack of adequate clean drinking water, sanitation and waste management facilities in most Asian cities further compounds the problem. Cities are hard-pressed to find resources to manage these challenges. Increased local flood events such as seen in Dhaka and Bangkok recently put a further stress on infrastructure. Five Asian countries have more than half the urban population at risk from coastal or inland flooding. With over 500 million or 61 per cent of global slum-dwelling population in Asia, Asian cities paint a worrisome picture of all that could go wrong unless appropriate action is taken at the earliest. The document analyzes all data and uses the Environmental Kuznets Curve to map Asia as an aggregate and establish that Asia is on the rising side of the Kuznets curve, which means that in a business-as-usual scenario, Asia’s environment is likely to become far worse before it gets better. Having said this, the document also identifies various opportunities presented by urbanization, that if effectively utilized can help Asia emerge out of the curve.
Urbanization has many associated benefits including better education, increasing access to improved quality of life, cities becoming incubator for innovations, among others. Urbanization leads to higher productivity due to economies of scale. Development of the service sector is also closely associated to urban agglomeration. Higher density also allows environment-related services necessary for improving quality of life, especially for those residing in poor and informal settlements, to be provided and maintained more economically. Most importantly, urban areas are a cauldron for fostering of innovations. Urbanization also leads to better access to social services including education and anecdotal evidence suggests reduces fertility rates, thereby promoting a better quality of life.
The document extends a hypothesis that if principles of green development in urbanization are adopted immediately, economies of scale would allow achieving green urbanization in Asian cities. This in turn would not only improve quality of life for urban citizens in Asian cities but also lead to global benefits by cutting down on harmful emissions that directly contribute to climate change. The document establishes that efforts undertaken by some Asian countries through structural changes, use of technologies and improving regulatory environment are able to demonstrate this. Based on this, and using the World Development Report indicators, the document establishes that the environment-urbanization curves in Asia can shift favourably over time, if better technologies and policies are incorporated by Asian countries.
Clearly, with most of development still to happen, learning from other continents available to reflect on and with likely technology advancements to account for, Asian cities are in a position to shift to greener models of urbanization. However, this would require Asian cities to make clear-cut choices on type and style of development it promotes supported by improved infrastructure availability.
The paper presents key intervention areas that Asian cities/countries need to start thinking on immediately to shift to a greener development outcome. Four ‘sub-sections’ are identified within which the change needs to be incorporated. First, is enhancing efficiency and conservation that call for efficient pricing systems and cost recovery models. Getting in place effective environmental laws and regulations and move to public transport systems, are some of the other recommendations made. Second, is getting in place policies that promote technological advance, creation of environment-friendly cities and use of alternative energies. Technology based innovations, and use of alternate energy sources, are critical to promoting green urbanization and examples of using mobile based phones rather than landline based phone that cost more, using waste-to-energy options, use of renewable energy or gas-based energy production options are discussed. Recommendations also include three forms of city development models including green cities, satellite cities and compact cities.
Third, is the call for climate proofing new development especially the ones that target the poor, and including the poor in the city development process. Policy options like effective zoning, slum policies, providing tenure security or property rights are recommended. Use of housing vouchers and ensuring that all slum dwellers have access to basic services is also proposed. Fourth, calls for improved practices for financing urban development, and government transparency and accountability. Gaining efficiency in tax revenue collection, monetisation of land, and accessing capital markets through municipal bonds are recommended. A call for greater transparency and accountability in local government functioning is made including use of tools such as citizen report cards. Better use of information technology for disseminating information is also mentioned. The document concludes by mentioning that different Asian countries are at widely different stages of development and have varied regulatory structures and economic landscapes and so individual countries must carefully evaluate and select interventions that best suit their specific locations.
There is no doubt that this is a well-timed and a useful document. While on one side the document presents the stark challenges of urbanization in Asia, on the other, it also presents a ray of hope that if Asian cities heed to the warning and take action, then green urbanization can indeed be achieved in the continent. The evidence-based approach used to present findings and recommendations is welcome and makes the document an enjoyable read. However, the paper falls shy of covering a few areas in terms of recommendations for going forward. First is the need to build institutional capacity of urban local governments in Asia. Most city governments across Asia are still weak in terms of functional and financial devolution. Issues of low skill base and weak capacities are common and need to be addressed. Second is the role that the private sector can play in the process is not emphasized. Most Asian countries are set to see a frenzy of urban growth and construction over the next three decades and most of this will be undertaken by the private sector. Third is the lack of strong national or regional urban-focused research and development institutions in Asia.
As Asian cities steamroll ahead towards an ‘urban path of glory’, one can only hope that our cities would be sensible to adopt green urbanization and ensure that our future generations would benefit equally from the glory and legacy of development of this era.