Developing low carbon and resilient cities serves as an important pathway for realizing national and local mitigation targets while assuring long-term economic growth and improving the quality of life. These commitments are critical to address the threat of climate change and promote sustainable development. To achieve carbon neutrality and build resilient cities, business as usual will not work and innovative solutions are required to bring necessary changes in an efficient, cost-effective, and timely manner.

This report analyzes the experiences of cities in and beyond North-East Asia in designing low carbon and resilient urban plans through STI in selected sectors, thereby supporting countries to utilize STI for the development of inclusive, sustainable, and resilient societies.  This compendium report also presents several case studies to showcase some of the successful implementations in urban environments and aims to provide planners with ideas for projects which might be applicable to their cities or towns ranging from ICT, land use, clean energy, sustainable mobility, waste management and energy efficiency. Meanwhile, also stimulating more projects based on local expertise and sharing through forums or reports such as this, leading to enhanced mutual learning in the region.

This compendium report was prepared as part of the project “Leveraging Science, Technology and Innovation for Low Carbon and Resilient Cities” by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) East and North-East Asia (ENEA) Office in collaboration with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) - Local Governments for Sustainability of East Asia Office and the innovative Green Development Program (iGDP).