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Promoting VLR in Taiwan to Accelerate Sustainability and Transition to Net Zero Emissions
On September 9, ICLEI KCC, the Kaohsiung City Government, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Japan jointly organized the “Keys of Countdown to 2030: Promotion of Action-oriented VLR-Accelerating Sustainability and Transition to Net Zero Emissions” International Workshop at Net Zero College was to enhance knowledge and capabilities of local government employees about preparing the voluntary local Review (VLR) and entering the new VLR era. The Voluntary Local Review (VLR) is a action-oriented, evidence-based, diverse, and inclusive process to accelerate sustainable development goals and transition to net zero.
This workshop invited Dr. Fernado Ortiz-Moya of IGES, Japan; Director of Low Carbon Development Center of New Taipei City Government, Mr. Lee Chun-Yi; CEO of Sustainable Development and Low Carbon City of Taichung City Government, Ms. Huang Hsiao-Ching; Chief of Climate Chang Response, Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of Kaohsiung City Government, Mr. Chu Chin-Hung; and personnel in charge of sustainability affairs of city and county governments (including EPB of Pingtung County, Tainan City, Yunlin County, Taichung City, Hualien County, and New Taipei City and Industrial Tourism Development Office and Park Street Lamp Management Office of Jinfeng Township) to share their practical experiences of sustainable development and discuss how VLR can accelerate sustainable development and transition to net zero emissions as the guidance for concrete actions of future urban development.
In the first session, “Localization of Taiwan’s Sustainable development Goals: Experience Sharing and Future Urban Prospectives,” CEO Ms. Huang Hsiao-Ching first shared Taichung City’s motive, objective, and challenges to promote VLR and proposed Taichung City’s SDGs data collection and management mechanism to track and quantify achievements through periodical meetings and color signal signs. In addition to policy promotion and alliance with SDGs, Taichung City Government focuses on 2050: A Pathway to Net Zero Emissions” and enhances communication with stakeholders to continuously conduct rolling adjustment and implement net zero emissions policy.
Director Lee Chun-Yi shared that in order to respond to climate change challenges, New Taipei City announces “the 2050 New Taipei City’s Pathway to Net Zero Emissions and Climate Action White Paper” as well as establish the Healthy City and Sustainable Development Council. Through the promotion of urban sustainability, organizational governance, self-government ordinances, financial support, and smart transition of industries, life, and technology, development and utilization of green energy, and net zero emissions design of large-scale development projects and buildings are realized.
Section Chief Chu Chin-Hung, in the end of Session 1, talked about Kaohsiung’s experience of climate sustainability governance. In compliance with the “Kaohsiung City Net Zero Emissions Development Self-Government Ordinances,” Kaohsiung City connects urban sustainable development to net zero emissions policy to draft its VLR and to achieve SDGs, Kaohsiung City set up 161 localized SDGs sub-indicators and through periodical review and inspection, effectiveness are monitored. On the other hand, through legal implementation, technology development, talent training, and economic support, the comprehensive net zero emissions industry has been built. In the future, Kaohsiung City Government will continuously learn from other local governments to work on indicators lag behind and enhance communication with stakeholders to mitigate transitional challenges.
In Session 2, “Global Observation: Trend and Newly Emerging Issue of Localization of SDGs,” Dr. Ferando Ortiz-Moya shared trends he observed from his own study and counseling experience of VLR preparation. From 2018 to 2023, 263 VLRs were developed by local governments around the world, and among them, the largest 35.4% from those in Europe followed by those in Latin America and the Caribbean Region (32.3%) and Asia (20.9%). In Taiwan, 22 county and city governments proposed at least one VLR and more than half of them continuously develop VLR indicating emphases and participation of Taiwan’s local governments in VLR.
These concrete trends demonstrate wide application of VLR around the globe, and VLR is not only a tool that supports policy integration but also a guideline to facilitate inter-departmental decision making for policy enactment. Through localization of 17 SDGs, feasible action strategies are developed to lead cities toward sustainable development. At the same time, VLR has the flexibility for rolling adjustment and amendment to enable cities to respond to crises such as COVID-19 and climate threats and serve as the guideline for concrete actions to mitigate and adjust the net zero emissions policy.
In terms of VLR promotion methodology, it can be divided into, first, “outcome-based approach” that assesses SDGs with quantified data and focuses on achievement results; and second, “process-oriented approach that emphasizes on action process of SDGs and assess quality of policies and strategies. With either method, VLR as a tool to adapt to local conditions plays an important role in supporting and facilitating localization of SDGs.
What makes action-oriented VLR so unique?
The concept of “action-oriented VLR” was initiated by the UN-Habitat's Offices aiming to transform VRL outcomes into concrete and feasible strategies to promote sustainable development of cities. Its contents emphasize on future urban planning, financing, and investment in manpower can be done through feasible and data-based action plans. At the same time, they can strengthen the anchoring of VLRs within local decision-making processes. In order to improve implementation effectiveness, action-oriented VLR focuses more on sustainable capability building, and through talent training and resource matching, governmental employees in charge of implementation can enhance professional skills and agency efficacy. Additionally, through continuous monitoring mechanism, policy evaluation and adjustment can be reviewed from time to time to ensure long-term sustainability of urban development.
However, during the implementation process, VLR face various challenges. First, due to the ambiguous concept of policy integration, each governmental agency works alone, so it is difficult to facilitate inter-departmental coordination. Furthermore, there are some challenges of resource integration. Local governments have to ensure there is sufficient support for finance, manpower, and technology to effectively promote SDGs localization. In terms of data collection, it is still a big technological to accurately collect, identify, and renew relevant data.
Hence, to tackle these challenges, strategies such as establishment of inter-departmental task force and concrete work mechanism during development processes of VLR to achieve SDGs have been implemented by Barcelona, Bonn, Bristol, and Gent. Additionally, through continuous data collection and monitoring, policy science and effectiveness has been promoted and rolling review mechanism has been established to ensure dynamic adjustments done according to changing of situation. Public consultation enables policy makers to understand public demands and develop more transparent and democratic policy initiatives. For local governments that are now developing VRL, it has been suggested that they should consider policy integration at the pre-preparation stage, maximize effectiveness, and invest sufficient resources, funds, and personnel to support sustainable development processes.
During Q&A session, attendees raised about solutions for interruption of policy implementation due to change of city and county mayor, and Dr. Fernando Ortiz-Moya used Helsinki as the example where the length of a mayoral term is four years, and thus, their strategy is to develop two VRL during a four-year mayoral term. The first VLR one is issued during the middle of a mayor’s term to establish the declaring future goals and current development process of Helsinki while the second one is issued at the end of the mayoral term serving to review achievements and set up next-stage actions to ensure effective continuation of policies and prevent from interruption due to change of mayor.
Dr. Fernando Ortiz-Moya pointed out challenges faced about collecting and identifying data by various cities around the world when developing VLR. However, along with gradual implementation of VLR, cities can slowly identify which data should be kept, renewed, or disused. Therefore, continuous implementation and dialogues with stakeholders are crucial to help identify suitable data collection method and pathway for any local government.
In the end of the workshop, Distinguished Professor of College of Construction and Development, Dr. Tseng Te-Feng; CEO of Taiwan Climate Action Association, Ms. Liao Ching-Hui; and Director of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Technology Research Center of National University of Kaohsiung, Dr. Wu Min-Hao served as leaders of each table to encourage members to share their experiences, difficulties, and actions to realize SDSs indicators. Through brainstorming and experience sharing, we concluded that during promotion of sustainable development affairs, active participation in relevant workshops will transform VLR contents into work tasks and build a platform for data collection, public awareness education. Additionally, it will create both horizontal and vertical integration and localized indicators and KPIs for the development of advanced action-oriented VLR.
VLR is about “processes” and actions, and it is also a tool that can be used continuously to interpret sustainable development progresses of cities. We often discuss each SDGs indicator separately, but in fact, they are all interconnected and synergy can be created among them. For example, building a “public library” is one action that can helps to achieve synergy effects of SDGs to preserve historical and cultural heritage, promotes fair educational opportunity, facilitate social tolerance, and develop communities.
17 UN SDGs can be used as the objective structure of future development of cities, but they should not be limited. Each city can proposed their own proposals and unique SDGs indicators and develop unique localized sustainability pathways. At the same time, they can help to demonstrate local identifies. In the end, VLR also connects cities to the international community and an important tool to communicate with stakeholders and partners. VLR is not the end of the journey, but a very meaningful start point. If it can be strategically allied with future development guidelines of cities, it can support localized plans to achieve maximized synergy and optimize outcomes of key actions.
