Assessing carbon and water footprints in Andean cities (Inside Stories on Climate Compatible Development)

The capital cities of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru are vulnerable to climate change, partly due to their dependence on water from retreating Andean glaciers for human consumption, industrial use, hydropower production, agriculture and other uses. This comparative study of La Paz, Quito and Lima highlights the challenges, enabling factors, lessons learned and implications for climate compatible development illustrated by a project to assess the cities’ carbon and water footprints.

Key findings include:

• Calculating city-wide carbon and water footprints has proven useful for decision-making in urban planning and management, and has resulted in action plans, policies and projects in the three cities.
• Strong high-level political will, ‘champions’ in municipal governments, innovative financing and an enabling institutional environment at the municipal level are critical for successful urban climate compatible development.
• Buy-in from identified key stakeholders representing different city sectors (transport, residential, commercial, industrial and public) has been important to building momentum for climate compatible development.
• Measuring carbon and water footprints and subsequent planning efforts can stall if no further steps are taken to move to a project implementation phase. Local governments are already working to identify the best ways to create partnerships with key actors, gain access to financing and technology, and institutionalise footprint-related processes in their operations.