The scoping report Open Governance in the Smart City was launched alongside the "Manifesto on Citizen Engagement" by ICLEI Europe Regional Director Wolfgang Teubner at a ceremony in Brussels (Belgium) on 23 November. The report, which was produced as part of the EU-funded smarticipate project, provides an overview of how cities are using smart technology to enhance governance processes.

Three questions are explored by the report: What is open governance in the smart city? How do cities make use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Open Governance? What are the risks, opportunities and lessons learnt for the use of ICT in open governance? To find the answers, the authors examined the ICT activities of 11 cities in both Europe and further abroad. Amsterdam's Datapunt platform, which aims to make Open Data more accessible to citizens, is detailed, along with Decide Madrid, a one-stop shop for all open governance processes run by the city, including a city wide participatory budgeting system.

Tirana's Ime tool, which allows citizens to easily report issues in the city to the administration is looked at, as is Smart Chicago Collaborative, a non-profit organisation that promotes civic tech in the American city. Based on the analysis of the cases, the report provides seven "recommendations", or things to be considered by cities when using ICT in open governance processes.

To read the document, click here.Image copyright: Image (ICLEI) more   24 November 2016 Standardised reporting for cities a focus at COP22 LESCThe Low-Emissions Solutions Conference (LESC) held during COP22 in Marrakech (Morrocco) on 14-16 November, mobilised leaders from business, government, cities, science and academia to discuss solutions and new technologies for implementing the Paris Agreement. The three-day event, co-organised by ICLEI "“ Local Governments for Sustainability, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network analysed key technologies and low-carbon systems.

During the conference, experts discussed, among other topics, the importance of standardised reporting and measuring for local climate action, and presented initiatives, platforms and tools such as the Global Covenant of Mayors, the carbonn® Climate Registry and ClearPath.

Representatives from Warsaw (Poland) and Dakar (Senegal) expressed how critical these enabling frameworks are. Antoine Faye, Dakar's chief resilience officer, said it was complex for Senegalese municipalities to implement global processes such as the Paris Agreement, which focus almost exclusively on national commitments. Warsaw's director of infrastructure development, Leszek Drogosz, stressed the importance of using available funds to drive the low-carbon transition.

Both cities signed up to the Compact of Mayors, which has joined with the EU's Covenant of Mayors to form the Global Covenant of Mayors. The Global Covenant will enable cities to collect and report climate data in a comparable and transparent way, allowing them to produce climate action plans and to track their progress. The Covenant of Mayors, together with a wide range of initiatives, uses carbonn® Climate Registry as one of the reporting platforms. Its latest digest reports that cities have cut an incredible 1 Gigatonne of carbon emissions in 2015-2016. In reference to the ICLEI tool on offer, ICLEI Low Carbon City Program Manager Maryke Van Staden said: "Cities often don't have the capacity to deal with all global processes; our job is to make it simple for them to be ambitious and have their voice heard."

For more information about the conference, visit the LESC website.Image copyright: Image (ICLEI) more

» Publication Date: 28/11/2016

» Source: Iclei Europe

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