We had a very full and interesting first day at the Climate Leadership Academy here in Jakarta.  Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, Mrs. Alicia Dela Rosa Bala welcomed the attendees to Jakarta.  U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden then spoke and emphasized how cities need to solve problems and not wait for central government assistance and shared great stories about cities addressing issues of planning, building back better after disasters – this really resonated with the city staff that were attending from 8 cities from the ASEAN region.

Andrew Sisson, USAID/Jakarta Mission Director, US Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden, CityLinks Program Director Joseph Lombardo and Alicia Dela Rosa Bala, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN

Andy Hendricus, Lecturer at the University of Indonesia, spoke about PICAS - the Planning for Integrated Coastal Adaption Strategies program the City of Jakarta is implementing. PICAS is focused on mapping the most vulnerable areas involving vulnerable communities in urban planning, those who live in Kampungs or informal settlements.  Nearly 30% of all residents live in informal settlements. They are working with local residents to utilize their knowledge how to adapt to climate change.  PICAS will help create housing and settlement guidelines for Kampungs to help the most vulnerable residents.

I facilitated a session with the City Planning and Development Coordinator of Legazpi City, Philippines, Mr. Joseph Esplana. He shared how his city has launched several initiatives to address the impacts of climate change – particularly in the areas of urban agriculture, including:

1. The city is working with farmers to help them adjust when to plant crops since climate change has affected the growing season.
2. They plant thousands of trees each year to strengthen their urban forest.
3. They are working with schools to create demonstration gardens to teach children about urban agriculture and climate change.
4. They are promoting citizens to install small gardens on their roofs to encourage more “green roofs.”
5. They want to promote organic farming and have created small demonstration farms to pilot efforts for farmers.
6. They are planting along river banks to create a natural solution to reduce flooding and erosion.
7. They are recycling plastics and other wastes (include tires) to use for container gardening.
8. They allocate 5% of their budget to disaster risk reduction.

Finally, we really enjoyed hearing from Lee Feldman, City Manager of Ft. Lauderdale, FL and ICMA member, who gave a keynote address about Ft. Lauderdale’s efforts at addressing adaption to the impacts of climate change. He spoke about the city’s efforts, the impact from Hurricane Sandy on the city as well as its participation in the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact  . He emphasized the importance of regional partnership to address this important topic.

Check out the video to learn more.

Day 1 of the Climate Leadership Academy went well and there will be more information to share in the coming days!

You can learn more about the Climate Leadership Academy by clicking here or to learn more about CityLinks, visit the CityLinks website, and Notes from CityLinks blog, or e-mail international@icma.org.  Follow us on Twitter - @ICMACityLinks.