Title: IHDP Industrial Transformation
1IHDP Industrial Transformation opening to a
debate on Sustainable urbanization? What
Europe may learn from Asia Peter J.
Marcotullio UNU-IAS 7 March 2007
2Outline of the presentation
- A brief note on popular themes of contemporary
Asian urban development - Looking through a glass darklysome differences
between what we see now and what we have
experienced previously (theory and evidence from
2 case studies) - Challenges and opportunities examples of
environmentally practices in developing countries
of Asia to learn from and some important
challenges for the future
3Contemporary urban development
- Jessica Marshall, 2005 Mega-city, mega mess,
Nature 437pp. 312, - On the streets of this city, you can pick your
poison. Clouds of black and blue-white smoke
billow from the exhaust pipes of buses and
motorcycles. Thirteen rivers flow northwards to
Jakarta Bay, each a slurry of human waste and
garbage. Scavengers pick through the citys
rubbish looking for recyclable plastic and
cardboard. What they cant sell they
burn-batteries, rubber shoes and all. Rising
smoke from burning garbage wafts between the
citys skyscrapers.
4Clouds of black and blue-white smoke
5billow from the exhaust pipes of buses and
motorcycles
6rivers floweach a slurry of human waste and
garbage
7Scavengers pick through the citys rubbish
8Urban change in East and Southeast Asia
Source UN (2006) World Urbanization Prospects
The 2005 Revision Population Database
9Furthermore, consumption is predicted to increase
as more people within cities engage in middle
class lifestyles
- Between now and 2030, a predicted additional 600
million people in developing countries will
become middle class bringing the total population
in these regions to 1 billion - By 2040, consumption of motor vehicles in China
and India alone is predicted to match total
global figures of today (800 million vehicles in
use) (Goldman Saks, 2005, The Economist, 2006)
10Looking through a glass darkly
- Given the current conditions within the cities of
Asia and the predicted changes to come, what
future environmental impacts can we expect?
11Looking through a glass darkly Will developing
Asia follow developed world patterns?
- What has been the relationship between
development (or rising income) and the
environment for urban centers historically as
they grew in wealth? - Do developing economies follow the patterns of
the developed world?
12How where environmental transitions experienced
by developed world cities?
- Environmental transition theory suggests that as
cities increase in wealth they undergo a series
of environmental burdens that shift in type (from
health threatening to ecosystem threatening),
timing of impact (from immediate to delayed) and
geographic scale (from local to global)
Source McGranahan et al, 2001
13Examples of environmental trends with increasing
wealth
Source World Bank, 1992
14Hypothetical claims for differences between
developed and rapidly developing experiences
- Environmental burdens in developing world cities
are occurring sooner (at lower levels of income)
changing faster (over time) and emerging in a
more simultaneous fashion (as sets of challenges)
than had previously been experienced by the now
developed world - Environmental transitions therefore, have been
significantly altered. Seemingly, urban managers
in developing countries now much face more
complex sets of environmental challenges with
less revenue (relatively) with a shorter window
of opportunity for their resolution
15Three curves
Developed city experience
Environmental harm
Environmental harm
GDP/capita
GDP/capita
Environmental harm
Rapidly-developing city experience
GDP/capita
Environmental harm
Environmental harm
GDP/capita
GDP/capita
Source Marcotullio and Lee, 2003
16Case study 1 evidence for sooner, faster and
more simultaneously Comparison of (liquid
fuel) transportation CO2 emissions for several
different groups of developing economies and the
USA and Japan
17Sooner
Source Marcotullio, Williams and Marshall, 2005
18Comparison of increases in road and air CO2
emissions for most the rapid developers
Source Marcotullio, Williams and Marshall, 2005
19More Simultaneously
- Comparison of the mix of air and road
technologies contributing CO2 emissions using an
index for diversity of fuel consumption
(gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel) - Closer to 0 the more dominant a single
technology. The closer to 1 the more evenly
distributed the technologies
20Source Marcotullio, Williams and Marshall, 2005
21But despite the environmental chaos of
contemporary development
- Environmental impact (at least in this case) was
lower in developing economies than the USA at any
comparable level of economic income!
22Comparison of road-CO2 emission changes with
increasing income, USA and selected Asian
economies
Source Marcotullio and Williams, 2007
23Case study 2 Does the paradox apply when Asian
developing country emissions are compared with
other developed economies? Evidence using
road-CO2 emissions
24Faster comparison of increases over time in
road-CO2 emissions for selected developed and
Asian economies
Source Marcotullio 2006
25Comparative change in road CO2 emissions, USA
and selected developed economies
Source Marcotullio 2006
26Simplified chart of comparative developed economy
trends with shaded area between the lowest
(Netherlands) and second highest (Australia)
curves
Source Marcotullio and Marshall, forthcoming
27Group A low emitters
Source Marcotullio and Marshall, forthcoming
28Group B medium emitters
Source Marcotullio and Marshall, forthcoming
29Group C high emitters
Source Marcotullio and Marshall, forthcoming
30Differences between trends are related to a
number of factors, no doubt technology is
influential but,Institutions and policies
have also played a key role in creating the
efficient cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Seoul, among others
31Transit cities Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore
32Examples of interesting environmental policies
- Bus Rapid Transit
- Seouls Bus Reform System (July 2004)
- Trans-Jakarta Bus way (January 2004)
- China Beijing (December 2004), Hangzhou (April
2006), Kunming (1999) (Under construction or
planning in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang,
Chongqing, Xian, Jinan)
33BRT in Beijing
34Examples of interesting environmental policies
- Clean Air Initiative
- China has initiated an ambitious set of fuel
economy standards intended to bring about changes
in the vehicle fleet including the introduction
of more advanced vehicle technologies, a bias
against heavier vehicles and an overall more
efficient fleet
35Comparison of fuel economy and GHG emission
standards
Dotted lines are proposed standards
Source Merril Lynch 2005
36Examples of interesting environmental policies
- Alternative fuels
- Bio-diesel fuels in Malaysia, Indonesia and the
Philippines - LPG and Natural gas is widely used in Japan
(particularly taxis) and increasingly in
Thailand, China and Malaysia. Many diesel
fuelled taxis in Hong Kong have shifted to LPG
37Malaysian oil palm plantations may be sources of
biodiesel
38Examples of interesting environmental policies
- Vehicle quota system and congestion charging
(ERP) - Singapore (transferred to London recently)
- Vehicle and fuel taxes
- Singapore, China, Vietnam, Japan, S. Korea,
39Electronic road pricing in Singapore
40Additional cost of a typical car in Singapore
- The Open Market Value of a 1.6 litre Toyota
Corolla in 2004 was approximately Sing20,000
(US12,000) - The buyer typically pays taxes in the form of an
Certificate of Entitlement, an Additional
Registration Fee, an Excise Duty, the
Registration Fee and ownership and annual road
taxes - With these additional costs the price of the car
increases to Sing80,000 (US47,000)
Source Barter, 2005
41Examples of other interesting environmental
policies
- River restoration in Seoul
- Cheonggye river
- before restoration
42Examples of other interesting environmental
policies
- Cheonggye river after restoration
43Examples of other environmental policies to learn
from
44Future significant challenges
Source Wards (various years)
45The way the differences influences play out will
determine the future pathway for the lower but
very large economies in the region
46Conclusion
- Urbanization in rapidly developing Asian
economies is commonly associated with
environmental health issues and potentially with
consumption and resource depletion concerns in
the future - These simultaneous concerns are partial evidence
that cities within the Asia Pacific region are
undergoing significantly different environmental
transitions when compared to the developed world
47Conclusion
- Despite experiencing sooner occurrence,
faster changes and more simultaneous
emergence of environmental burdens than those of
the developed world, however, many of these
developing economies also demonstrate lower total
environmental impact - Among the important factors in explaining this
paradox are, inter alia, technologies and
policy initiatives (institutions and various
transport demand management)
48Conclusion
- Yet not all rapidly developing economies are
following these patterns and there remains
uncertainty as to how the currently lower income
large economies will develop - By sheer size alone, the center of gravity for
concerns over the sustainability of the planet
will increasingly be pulled toward Asia - While tremendous challenges remain, there is also
glimmers of good news. Many cities in the region
remain flexible and have been experimenting with
new and exciting policy initiatives providing
both specific and generic examples to learn from
49Thank you