Multi-Vector Approach to Cities’ Transition to Low-Carbon Emission Developments

• Main Authors: Delali B.K. Dovie, Mawuli Dzodzomenyo, Daniel E. Dodor, Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, Daniel K. Twerefou, Samuel N.A. Codjoe, Raymond A. Kasei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: adaptation; climate change; climate resilience; co-benefits; greenhouse gas emissions; enhanced climate compatible development (EnCCD)
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/13/5382

Globally, cities have made efforts to shift to low-carbon emission development (LED), amidst air pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and high temperature anomalies. However, the emphasis on cities to help shift the global economy to LED has been on a single individual sector approach operating in silos rather than the inter and intra-specific outcomes of multiple sectors. Thus, there are uncertainties of adopting suitable pathways for cities’ transition to LED, due largely to data paucity and policy incoherence, constrained further by barriers to integrating science, policy, and practice. Hence, the need for cities to take advantage of the benefits of multi-directional perspectives of multiple sectors acting together—the “multi-vector” approach, to confront key questions of climate compatible development (CCD) that support LED. Therefore, the paper extends the development narratives of the CCD approach to an “enhanced” climate compatible development (EnCCD) pathway with in-built questions and determinants to scope cities’ transition to LED. The EnCCD suggests that the standalone intersection between mitigation and development to deliver LED will not result in cities’ resilience unless (i) co-benefits, which are outcomes of mitigation and adaptation, and (ii) climate-resilient development, the product of adaptation and development, coevolved. Therefore, the EnCCD transforms the development policy focus of cities on separate, single-purpose sectors, such as energy or transport, into multi-sector portfolios having synergistic benefits of mitigation, adaptation, and development strategies.