FromVicious to Virtual Urban-Industrial Symbiosis Joshua Gallo Municipal Financing Consultant, United Na�ons Industrial Development Organiza�on (UNIDO) & Associate Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS Europe
Have you no�ced that every report in your mailbox points to ci�es as the cause and solu�on for most development challenges? This is good news, in the sense that there seems to be a consensus on where we should focus our efforts to meet the world’s sustainability goals. This ar�cle doesn’t dispute that premise, but perhaps it’s �me to make a step beyond that, a step in which Malaysian ci�es can champion innova�on across the globe. We’ve well established that, with advancements in technology, industry, and urban infrastructure, ci�es have come to contribute 70% of global wealth. The flip side, of course, is a parallel trend in ci�es’ greenhouse gas emissions. If we’re are to achieve sustainability, something needs to change in ci�es’ “vicious” business as Ci�es provide industries with the required infrastructure, the workforce, and many essen�al services such as a reliable administra�on. A well-func�oning city is a cri�cal factor for industrial development which, in turn, drives investments, innova�on, and growth. Eventually this cycle translates into revenues that the city can use to finance more and be�er services for all. How can we exploit to sustainability’s advantage the crucial interplay between ci�es’ administra�ons and industries? What city-led strategy can help industries contribute more efficiently towards urban sustainability?
usual. Development goals, whether global or local, will be impossible to reach without first ensuring the sustainability of ci�es. But exactly who is responsible for growth and emissions within ci�es’ perimeters? Municipal administra�ons and their subsidiaries account for only a small por�on of these phenomena. Yet they perform a crucial role in steering and enabling private sector agents that drive growth and related pollu�on. Industrializa�on and urbaniza�on have a long history of mutual development and reinforcement. “Ci�es” in abstract are not the solu�on to our challenges. The “real” space where long term development impact can be realized is the interplay between the public and private sectors within ci�es. The proposed approach aims to enable municipal en��es and private enterprises to jointly plan and finance climate-smart (resilient and “clean”) infrastructure. This translates into green industry development and private sector investments flowing towards ci�es. Below are a few instances where this virtuous urban-industrial symbiosis is exemplified. These are not new concepts, certainly not in the Malaysian context, but the underlining approach and the priority given to it is less common. There are varia�ons on the theme (special economic zones, eco-industrial parks, etc) and plenty of examples in Malaysia and elsewhere. The novelty lies in the city-led planning and financing (with private sector par�cipa�on) of all related infrastructure, including the adop�on of circular economy models. All ci�es in the world have a capital investment plan of sorts, i.e. a list of projects to be executed. The difference would be the adop�on of readily available, well-established, climate-smart methodologies turning these “lists” into a cleaner and more resilient por�olio of projects. If applied specifically toward the development of industrial areas such as “industrial parks”, this approach can yield significant sustainability benefits.
City-planned and public-privately financed industrial areas
Malaysia Smart City Outlook 2021 - 2022 |
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