The Asia LEDS Partnership has developed three case studies that focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building energy efficiency and climate resilience.

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2020, 70% of global emissions come from cities. Local-level planning and cooperation are important to address the challenges. Vietnam has set in its National Green Growth Action Plan (NGGAP) strategies that identify specific activities and tasks to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and provides a clear mandate and ownership to all stakeholders. The NGGAP largely focuses on three aspects: reduced GHG emissions from all sectors, green production, and a green lifestyle with sustainable consumption. But Lam Dong province’s GGAP takes it a step further by including the preservation of natural resources and ecosystem services and increasing the income from main economic sectors. The case study on the green growth action plan of Lam Dong province, Vietnam presents Lam Dong’s GGAP, including the implementation plans, lessons learned, and the next steps.

As an island country, Chinese Taipei has a large population, limited land, and few natural energy resources. To achieve the energy transition goal, the Government of Chinese Taipei has set a target of reaching 20% of power supply from renewable energy sources by 2025, with solar PV (photovoltaic) and offshore wind power to account for 66.3% and 19.0% of all renewable power capacity. With two-thirds of the country having mountainous terrain, the government has been prioritising rooftop solar PV, besides ground-mounted solar PV. The case study on renewable energy deployment and installation in Chinese Taipei through the PV-ESCO business model highlights the background and historical development of Chinese Taipei’s energy policy, and the features and dynamics of the PV-ESCO (photovoltaic energy service company) model.

In Mongolia, heat loss has been a pressing issue. Forty-six percent of the national population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where 30% of buildings are precast buildings that have thin walls, insufficient insulation, poor piping configurations, and lack of thermostatic controls. Heat loss during winter nights, when the temperature falls below minus 40°C, leads to households experiencing severe cold. The case study on Building energy efficiency and thermal retrofitting, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, developed with the support of the Global Green Growth Institute, highlights the outcomes of Ulaanbaatar’s actions on energy-efficient and thermo-technical retrofitting, the challenges in mobilising resources for their implementation, and the major lessons learned. ICLEI South Asia played an instrumental role in reviewing the three case studies.