Climate Co-benefits in Rapidly Urbanizing Emerging Economies: Scientific and Policy Imperatives

Abstract

Emerging economies face multiple development challenges—rapid economic growth, proliferation of urban centers, environmental degradation, and growing infrastructure demand in an increasingly warming world. This is further accentuated by low performance of their cities on parameters of social development, equity, functional autonomy, and financial capacity. In the last decade or so, co-benefits approach has proved to be a key mechanism that provides both vertical cross-linkages between institutions (global, national, and local objectives) on the one end and horizontal interactions between development, environment, and climate policies. It thus becomes crucial to assess the relevance of co-benefits in emerging economies and draw from their early experiments. This investigation analyses the assessment tools, lessons learned, and knowledge gaps with the overarching aim to discern policy imperatives that moderate current unsustainable pathways of urbanization. Adopting a case study methodology, the chapter tests the applicability of urban co-benefits as an approach in India, China, Brazil, and Turkey, which together comprise about half of global urban population, underpinning how to promote concerted climate action based on scientific principles and specific contextual needs.