Building an Integrated Climate Planning Tool for Asia-Pacific Megacities up to 2050

Challenge

Megacities often lack integrated, locally tailored plans that align climate risks, emissions, and actionable solutions.

Solution

Develop a decision tool that links downscaled climate risks, modeled city GHG pathways, and evidence on effective measures for large cities.

Overview

Urban governments grapple with rising climate risks, growing energy demand, and the need to cut greenhouse gases at the same time. With support from the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Mahendra Sethi (Indian Society for Applied Research and Development, India) led a project to develop an Integrated Climate Action Planning (ICLAP) online decision-support tool and public website to relay the research and profile major cities

The goal was to combine location‑specific climate variability, city greenhouse gas profiles, and practical actions in a single, usable framework for planners and agencies.

Project context and approach

ICLAP brings together three strands of analysis.

First, it downscales climate information to the urban scale by translating global climate model outputs into city‑scale patterns that planners can use, then maps projected variability in temperature and rainfall for 2030 and 2050.

Second, it builds bottom-up city profiles of population, economy, energy use, and greenhouse gases (reported as CO₂-equivalent, CO₂e, with totals shown in million metric tons [MtCO₂e]). These profiles are developed using computable general equilibrium modeling, which represents the city economy and energy system to see how changes in one sector affect others. The approach allows future pathways to be compared with current trajectories.

And third, it compiles and summarizes evidence on city climate actions through a systematic literature review and meta‑analysis to highlight measures that have worked in comparable cities. Together, these strands allow local risk thresholds, emissions trends, and policy options to be viewed side by side.

Tool and data architecture

The tool organizes city inputs on geography, socio‑economics, energy, and existing climate plans into a harmonized database. Climate layers are paired with sectoral emissions and city policies so that users can explore where risks concentrate and which actions are available.

Public resources include a dashboard and city briefs that summarize profiles, projected variability, and sector contributions to emissions. Training and workshops introduced the tool and supported hands‑on use with policy planners and researchers.

City portfolio and use cases

The ICLAP city portfolio covers 49 large cities across 16 countries, spanning East, Southeast, and South Asia, along with Australia and Japan. Public resources include city briefs and dashboards with profiles, projections, and sector breakdowns of greenhouse gases. These use cases show how planners can pair local thresholds with near‑ and medium‑term policy choices, investments, and monitoring.

Policy and training

Training and outreach included expert workshops on data structure and methods, city-focused sessions on using the tool, and joint training with academic partners. These events showed planners how to read local climate projections, compare sector emissions, and choose tested measures for near- and mid-term plans. The approach supports integrated planning by aligning mitigation and adaptation, improving coordination among agencies, and grounding choices in locally relevant evidence.

Results and key findings

• The portfolio covers 49 large cities across 16 countries, selected from United Nations urban agglomeration data, with Melbourne and Sydney included as Australian exceptions. Climate projections are downscaled from MRI-CGCM3 and MIROC5 under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 on a 50 km × 50 km grid for 2030 and 2050.
• Public resources include an ICLAP website and online tool, which help planners choose actions with city briefs, and a book that compiles methods and city profiles.
• Tokyo’s emissions rose from 128 MtCO₂e in 1975 to 225 MtCO₂e in 2015; model pathways reach about 260 MtCO₂e by 2030 and 302 MtCO₂e by 2050. Projected long‑run warming ranges between roughly 1.7–4.0°C depending on the scenario.
• Melbourne’s emissions increased from 11.4 MtCO₂e in 1975 to 17.9 MtCO₂e in 2015; modeled values reach about 20.2 MtCO₂e by 2030 and 23 MtCO₂e by 2050, with projected warming between about 0.5–3.1°C by the 2080s.
• Bangkok’s emissions grew from 2.3 MtCO₂e in 1975 to 35.3 MtCO₂e in 2015; modeled values reach about 45 MtCO₂e by 2030 and 59.8 MtCO₂e by 2050. Projected warming is about 0.4–2.7°C.
• New Delhi’s emissions increased from 5.82 MtCO₂e in 1975 to 40.2 MtCO₂e in 2015; modeled values reach about 68.8 MtCO₂e by 2030 and 89.8 MtCO₂e by 2050. Projected warming is about 1.5–3.0°C.
• Training and workshops included an expert session on ICLAP data structure, the International Urban Climate Conference 2023 introducing the tool, and a joint hybrid training workshop.
• A series of peer reviewed publications have emerged related to this project: Sethi et al. (2022), Sethi & Mittal (2022), Sethi & Creutzig (2023), and Sethi (2024).

Project details

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) under its Collaborative Regional Research Programme (CRRP). Acknowledgements also go to Aki Suwa (Kyoto Women’s University, Japan); Akhilesh Surjan (Charles Darwin University, Australia); Li‑Jing Liu (Beijing Institute of Technology, China); Ram Avtar (Hokkaido University, Japan); Shilpi Mittal (G. D. Goenka University, India); Eva Ayaragarnchanakul (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand).

Related information

• Project Permalink
• Project Final Report
• Project Tool: ICLAP2050
• Sethi, M., Liu, L.-J., Ayaragarnchanakul, E., Suwa, A., Avtar, R., Surjan, A., & Mittal, S. (2022). Integrated Climate Action Planning (ICLAP) in Asia-Pacific Cities: Analytical Modelling for Collaborative Decision Making. Atmosphere, 13(2), 247. doi:10.3390/atmos13020247
• Sethi, M., & Mittal, S. (2022). Developing a smart tool for integrated climate action planning (ICLAP 2050) in Asia-Pacific Cities. Computational Urban Science, 2, 45. doi.org/10.1007/s43762-022-00074-7
• Sethi, M., & Creutzig, F. (2023). Leaders or laggards in climate action? Assessing GHG trends and mitigation targets of global megacities. In F. Ahmed (Ed.), PLOS Climate (Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. e0000113). Public Library of Science (PLoS). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000113
• Sethi, M. (2024). ICLAP 2050: Integrated Climate Action Planning in Asia Pacific Cities. In Integrated climate action planning (ICLAP) 2050 tool in Asia-Pacific cities (1.0, pp. 1–224). Indian Society for Applied Research & Development. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10071297
• Sethi, M. (2021, December 22). It’s sink or swim for Asia Pacific’s big cities in the war on climate change. Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research. https://www.apn-gcr.org/perspective/its-sink-or-swim-for-asia-pacifics-big-cities-in-the-war-on-climate-change/
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