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How do cities around the globe go about implementing a green, low-carbon and sustainable agenda? How can they harness each other’s skills, knowledge and experience to bring about concrete and palpable results?
In this special program of The Hub “Green Talks with Mayors,” CGTN anchor Wang Guan talks to Deputy Mayor of Chengdu Wang Zhihua and Lord Mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, Eckart Würzner and delves into their green initiatives at a municipal level. Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, is known as a “park city” and has been piloting and launching schemes at community and grassroots levels in favor of recycling and decarbonization. A great example is Chengdu’s iconic “sky garden” in Angong, an old community, that has attracted widespread attention with the greening of rooftops. And southwest Germany’s Heidelberg’s mayor speaks about his “passive housing project” aimed at decarbonizing his city by using energy more efficiently, thus making everyone’s life more sustainable.
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Hello and welcome to this special program we’re exploring the green cities around the world now cities bear the brunt of the climate crisis but the good news now is unprecedented actions are taken at subnational levels especially at City levels that’s why we’ll be having a conversation with Mayors from
Around the world beyond the city limits a global Gren Alliance is flexing its muscles meet C40 a Global Network uniting the world’s leading Mayors in the fight against the climate crisis let’s hear from C4 executive director Mark Watts sharing with us the alliance’s grin credentials and initiatives so we have the biggest
Cities in China the biggest cities in the United States in Europe uh in Africa Latin America southeast Asia primarily what we do is we bring the leaders of those cities both the Mayors the politicians and the technical uh leaders together so that they can learn from
Each other and so go much faster so they don’t have to work out how to develop a low emiss zone for the city to reduce emissions from traffic because London’s already been pioneering this for 20 years and can share its experience so that many other cities uh can copy it
But we also create um a platform for those local leaders so that they can inter influence the inter governmental the the broader international debate on climate because what we see actually is these these major cities they’re a quarter of global GDP is produced in them just within our 100 members about
800 million people but they’re reducing carbon emissions much faster than their respective nation states in most instances so 75% of Our member cities are cutting their emissions faster than their respective National governments and for this episode we’re in chungu where will be having a dialogue with Wanga deputy mayor of the
City he knows a thing or two about climate change and in fact he has dedicated much of his D life to the cause of the environment we’ll be learning more about how this Southwestern Chinese Mega City go in Grain mayor Juan chungu is a member of C40 that is a group incorporating 98
Cities around the world to fight climate change what did changu learn from the rest of the world and what did changu offer to the rest of the world uh Chu for for mayor Juan chungu says it wants to build a park city or a city within the
Park quote unquote how is the city fairing so far for for For for for before Park City transformed our communities gray spaces were distant echo on City outskirts chungu redefined the story integrating Parks into the urban fabric it’s not been all roses along the way and it took time to turn chungu City space into Hues of gray and graen
You’ve been here for what a year so far on what have been some of the most thorny challenges um when they comes to carving out a unique low carbon path for this city of 22 million around 22 million residents um how did you go about doing that for foree For fore in this small community waste is turned into fertilizer it might seem like a small step in the vast scen landscape of Mega City but let me tell you it is a giant leap for a planet that is grappling with a deep crisis climate change is not some far
Off concept it is right here with us felt in every season Beijing suffered the worst flooding in the past 70 years this summer and actually this year 2023 is the hottest year ever recorded for northern hemisphere what do you make of all this what does all this say about the urgency of climate
Change fore foree we know that taking climate efforts is as complicated as it is complex for this Mega city of uh chungu it has to take into account so many factors right when you think about economic growth that has to be sustained at a certain level so
That there can be enough jobs created especially for the younger population so how does social economic and financial factors coming into this equation when it comes to chundu efforts to fight climate change for GP For across the Eurasian continent Heidelberg in Germany is also committed to a zeroc carbon future boostered by a rich tradition of environmental initiatives hyberg made history in 1992 as the first German City to implement a Citywide climate protection concept today we’re honored to have Dr Ard hner
The mayor of hyberg to join us in this gra conversation who will share his insights into the city’s Innovative approaches and their profound impacts on fostering A Greener and more Vibrant Community okay Dr worner welcome to the program on cgtn hello wonderful meeting you greetings from heidleberg let’s talk
About your wonderful city um heidleberg Germany it has so many titles under its belt can you tell us about this a grein transition which is multifaceted of course and let me ask you first of all about this passive housing project which is one of the largest in the world what
Is a passive housing and how did did haberg build it yeah you have to know that haberg is a is a it’s a wonderful as you can see a wonderful historic University Town our our biggest treasure is knowledge and if you have the knowledge for example to build super
Efficient buildings like passive houses which needed about 1.5 liter per square meter and year oil instead of 15 or 20 it sh knows the gap between the technical potential and that’s what normally a regular building standard is and what we wanted to achieve in harderberg is use the knowledge create a
Better perspective for your citizens create a better life for your citizens and this will also cause the global in in a global Dimension uh the global change uh question because if you are acting on the local level you can show best practice example and that’s exactly
What the citizens wanted to see from us you have been mayor of heidleberg for nearly two decades I still want to get your s Sense on how you put it off in terms of building this passive housing project which is the largest in the world uh to many average viewers who
Might not be terribly familiar with what a passive housing is uh can you tell us um how do these guys build it the big discussion we had was you you have aack technical solution but uh the National Standard is much too weak and what we
Have done was uh we owned the whole area which we wanted to develop so we becoming one of the biggest landlords uh in our region and then we decided okay if you wants to buy any piece of land here you wants to build a house there a
Retail shop a sports gym or a medic Medical Institute whatever you have to accept the harderberg politically decision uh um standard which is the passive house standard and by doing so we could achieve that every building is has to use the standards also if it’s much much much low than a National
Standard at the beginning we had a huge discussion oh it’s too expensive you can’t pay it but no the people uh learn very quickly that you reduce the energy demand so rapidly that you save so much money that it’s absolutely also economically very uh it makes very much
Uh sense to use this higher standard in the midterm and long-term strategy um for a free market democracy like Germany was there resistance in the beginning some might say oh this is undemocratic this is anti-free Market um were there voices like that back in the day absolutely that that’s that’s all the
Whole range you had we had at the beginning no heidleberg Building Company who wants to accept this building standard because they said it’s much too expensive but we get a lot of people attracted uh who understand that this standard is uh is the game changer uh in in setting up future
Oriented City areas and by doing so bringing also external people here to hyberg and they love hyberg they find it a great concept a great strategy uh which wanted to support this city of uh a walking distance you can achieve everything uh bicycle city tram lines in the city green areas around the
New city area and uh a reduction of the climate emissions of this city area by more than 85% that this is a future concer and over the years now everybody is a great fan of uh such a strcture but at the beginning it was not easy it was
Heavily we had a lot of political discussions but uh those who have uh the knowledge in our city also our political board decided no we wanted to get a step further in developing this the city for the next Generations haberg is well connected is considered a major
Transportation Hub and uh maybe you can tell us a bit about um under your Administration how did haberg make the very City more walkable and more cyclable reducing the carbon footprint the first thing is you have to attract the downtown areas um as pedestrian areas the second step is uh you always
Have to define a mixture so not a city area where the people are working and a city area where the people are sleeping so you have laugh lots of Transportation need this is not a future concept so we wanted to have a walking distance City urban city where you have everything on
In one area so uh the new city areas they have mostly in the center uh campus University campus areas small and medium Enterprises pars pups and residential area so it’s a mixture Second Step you have to expand your mass transport system so TRS and
Buses and on the other hand uh if you do so you also have to take into account that bicycle driving is the cheapest environmental friendliest way of also not only short distance which was in the the past the situation also in the medium distances because by using more and more electric
Bikes uh it becomes really a bigger movement also for medium and long-term distances so that you can commute over 5 10 kilom to downtown area or 3 4 kilometer very easily by uh using bikes and by expanding the bike Lanes so also bike Highway Lanes to the downtown area
We achieved that in harburg about 80% of the citizens are not using cars anymore on the larger question the role of government um mayor Dr wner I want to ask you about this fine line between you know a policy and unleashing the full potential of the free market um what are
You doing on one hand in implementing all the standards and regulations and on the on the other hand um trying to perhaps harness the energy of the free market engaging with Nos and Enterprises I think you won’t achieve your goals if you’re not integrating the Enterprises um uh I’m a great friend of
Uh open doors in many or in mostly every part you have a wonderful technical solution which it’s a GameChanger but the technical solution it’s not implemented because at the beginning it’s mostly a little bit more expensive or it’s a little bit more unknown Technic so uh craft and trade Chambers
Are not so convinced with this technology say they have to be trained they have to be uh yeah work together with these new techn Solutions that’s what we’re doing so we have huge not only awareness campaigns we have also advice teams outside who practice who train together with the Enterprises the
New product lines and in the new tools and by doing so you can change a lot you can integrate the new Enterprises you can use private Capital money which is absolutely needed to implement lots of those new Solutions and by doing so you really achieve that the economic
Development of your city the social Dimension and the environmental Dimension is really equally uh combined in this new future concept can you perhaps give us one most striking story about this multi benefits uh that the grin transition is bringing to the residents of hyberg you have lots of
Schools but you have just a small Administration unit who is trying to make the retrofitting program for the schools and you have also uh package of money uh which is mostly not enough to renovate all the buildings and all the heating systems so by bringing in private
Companies giving them a revenue for one two years they will make the renovation the retrofitting in your existing buildings for example your school building they Implement a new heating system they make the renovation uh we make a contract for five years 2 years more is the revenue for the private
Company but therefore I don’t need so much much money uh uh in my Administration I can uh run those programs with a smaller number of in the administration and uh it’s a game changer because in a very short period of time I really can achieve my goal to
Reduce the energy demand for example of all schools and kindergartens in h and by running this program we have reduced in less uh than 10 years more than 50% of the total demand amount of energy for all schools and kindergartens in hurg so climate implementation strategy means
Quicker uh achieving your goals uh and it’s economically rentable for lots of companies creates business and creates uh employment so it has a social Dimension and it’s also climate friendly May wner our program features Mayors from around the world uh particularly the C40 mayors of which which haberg is
A part of um what do you want to say to your fellow Mayors Municipal leaders around the world especially when it comes to the experiences of a grand transition and the Lessons Learned along the way yeah I think we can learn a lot from each other so therefore this
Exchange of our experiences is one of the leading points the second point is that our voices are heard on the national and supranational louder so for uh for the G7 process for example uh in Europe and with Canada us and Japan uh we’re working now in a U7 process so
That also cities can take over here in this process a leading position that we are part of the cop meetings that we Implement not only our ideas our Solutions into these uh political papers and then we achieve these uh goals much easier that was the result of Paris
Where we brought in a lot of energy uh by Bloomberg a lot of uh analor and many other Mayors from the C40 uh group who said yes we can do this we wanted to achieve uh these goals and we have to achieve these goals so please use our tools what we have already
Implemented uh in cities here and there finally what are your thoughts on uh the progress of China China especially at Municipal levels uh when it comes to decarbonizing the Chinese Society the Chinese cities I’m always very impressed because uh at the beginning uh 15 years
Ago it was uh a lot of discussion what China can learn from Europe or from heidleberg or whatever uh that this has changed uh China is very active in the climate uh policy and strategy China is taking over lead position of implementing uh huge megawatt power plants in the field of
Renewables uh is taking over a lead in the production line uh is taking over a lead in in new prod lines when I think about uh new fuel Technologies like uh hydrogen uh but uh I am very much interested that we all uh participate in in this process not just one country
It’s a process where every country has to use very easily this new technology can get a very easy uh way to use it all so in a cheaper way uh to use it in a much higher demand so China is a great example today Dr wner mayor of hyberg
Germany thank you so much for being on our show thank you for your time thank you that will do it for this special program thank you so much for tuning in I’m mwat and I see you again soon