LocationsKeynote Speech by Ms Beate Trankmann at the UNDP Asian Mayors Forum – Beijing CBD Forum 2025
June 10, 2025
UNDP Resident Representative in China, Beate Trankmann, delivered a keynote speech at the UNDP Asian Mayors Forum – Beijing CBD Forum 2025 in Beijing, China.
尊敬的各位阁下、市长、城市领导人、合作伙伴及同事们
Excellencies, mayors, city leaders, partners, and colleagues,
It’s a great pleasure to welcome you today at the Beijing CBD and Asian Mayors Forum 2025.
I’d like to thank the Chaoyang District Government and Beijing CBD for co-convening this important regional dialogue with UNDP.
As we meet today, the world’s urban future is being reshaped, with cities at the forefront of global transformation.
Nowhere is this more evident than here in Beijing’s Central Business District. As a vibrant hub for innovation in sustainable urban development, from green transportation to energy efficient infrastructure, it is a fitting venue for a bold conversation on reimagining urban systems.
Currently, the Asia-Pacific region is urbanizing at an unprecedented speed and scale. Home to over 54% of the world’s urban population, the region will add 1.2 billion new urban residents by 2050.
With cities already accounting for over 75% of regional carbon emissions, rapid urbanization is a fundamental challenge in tackling the global climate crisis.
In addition, cities are also at the center of social inequality, digital disruption, biodiversity loss, and shifting demographic trends—all which are redefining development pathways.
To address these converging crises, a green, sustainable, and inclusive urban transformation is needed more than ever. And at the heart of this transformation lies enhanced urban governance—the system that determines how decisions are made, how resources are allocated, and how people shape their cities.
Effective urban governance is essential to meet climate targets and manage growth and inequality, through sustained policy implementation, finance, and innovation.
However, current governance models are often not equipped to respond to the multidimensional challenges facing cities today.
Too often, local governments remain dependent on central transfers, constrained by legacy systems, and unable to scale innovation or unlock private capital. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) remain underutilized. Regulatory frameworks are slow to evolve. Accountability mechanisms are fragmented and hindering policy impact.
Cities need to reimagine how they lead, collaborate, and finance sustainable development.
When governance is weak, services are uneven, trust declines, and urban systems buckle under stress.
But when governance is strong, inclusive, sustainable, and innovative, cities thrive. They can become engines of social progress, economic opportunity, and environmental resilience.
To that end, let me outline three shifts that are critical to chart a sustainable trajectory for the future of urban development:
First, we must shift from reactive governance to strategic foresight.
Future-ready cities require adaptive, people-centered systems that don’t just effectively respond to the complexity of urban development, but can also anticipate challenges before they arise. This will require:
- Defining a long-term urban development vision that integrates sustainability, inclusion and economic prosperity.
- Building public institutions that are agile, transparent, and trusted by public and private actors to enable innovation.
- And ensuring that land management, housing, and transportation policies are integrated and work together to improve livability.
Second, we must shift from fragmented systems, to collaborative, multilevel governance.
We need integrated planning frameworks that align SDG and climate targets with local development plans.
For example, since the signing of the Paris Agreement, most countries have set ambitious targets to reduce emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. These national commitments provide a clear and stable policy framework that can help guide long-term investments in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure.
Local governance structures can leverage these national commitments by creating localized strategies that align with national targets, ensuring that cities play an active role in achieving these climate goals.
Third, we must shift from financial dependence to fiscal empowerment.
Currently, according to the Asian Development Bank, the region faces an annual deficit of $1.7 trillion to achieve its economic growth targets and tackle climate change by 2030.
In the face of this shortfall, governance innovation will not succeed without equally ambitious financial reform.
It will be critical for cities to align budget and investment planning with climate and sustainable development priorities. In addition, the piloting of financial instruments like green bonds should be expanded, especially in places where there are existing financial ecosystems that can be leveraged.
"This is not just about systems—it is about leadership, vision, and the courage to break from outdated models. If we want resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities, together, we must start by reshaping how we govern them."
When these type of changes are incorporated at the city-level, we can see positive impact taking place across the region, in both large metropolitan areas and smaller cities.
For example, here in Beijing: Over the past decade, the city has made remarkable progress in improving air quality through its Clean Air Action Plan. Between 2013 and 2021, the city’s annual average PM 2.5 concentration dropped by 66%, falling in line with the national standard limit of 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
This was not just an environmental initiative—it was a governance transformation that included stringent regulations, economic incentives, multi-level cooperation, and the use of data and tech driven anticipatory systems.
In addition, perhaps most importantly, public engagement was prioritized – transparent information, citizen monitoring, and community-led action—including women-led environmental networks—were central to success.
Another good example comes from Iloilo City in the Philippines. The Iloilo River Esplanade regeneration project exemplifies how mid-sized cities can leverage urban governance to enhance resilience and equity.
Through strong city leadership, the project restored over 70 hectares of mangroves, significantly increasing carbon capture and reducing flood risk.
At the same time, wastewater management helped improve water quality and biodiversity, while 10 km of newly created public green space enhanced urban aesthetics, boosted tourism, and increased property values, demonstrating that environmental and economic benefits can go hand in hand.
Similar to Beijing, citizen involvement was also embedded throughout the entire process.
Stories like these underline that governance innovation is not abstract, but practical, measurable, and impactful. Cities embracing bold leadership and policy innovation can deliver transformative results, whether large or small.
At UNDP, we are working in over 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to support city leadership, foster local governance reform, de-risk investment, and align city budgets with the SDGs.
Our urban governance approach is centered on 3 A’s: Being anticipatory, adaptive, and agile. Specifically, this means:
- Leveraging foresight and systems thinking to help cities prepare for emerging risks and cope with complexity;
- Deploying digital and data tools to enhance decision-making and public accountability;
- Driving institutional innovation to test, adapt, and course correct based on feedback loops, data, and constant collaboration with citizens; and
- Exploring green and climate finance solutions to enable investment at scale.
In particular, on climate action, from Ho Chi Minh City to Dhaka, from Dhangadhi, Nepal, to Malay in the Philippines, across over 70 cities, we are supporting the design and adoption of low-carbon, inclusive transitions and circular economy models that embed climate targets into governance systems and enable access to green finance.
In doing this, we are building coalitions with the private sector, development banks, and regional networks to scale what works, and localize what matters.
Through partnerships with ESCAP, ADB, UN-Habitat, and city networks, we are working to share the knowledge, capacity, and investment that cities need to thrive.
With less than five years remaining before the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), cities across the region and indeed around the world, stand at a crossroads.
The choices we make—on planning, investment, participation, and partnerships—will determine whether our urban future is fragmented or flourishing.
The theme of this Forum—collaborative Innovation—goes to the heart of what’s needed today. Cities must be beacons of governance innovation, where new partnerships are forged to improve sustainability and where progress is made visible.
This is not just about systems—it is about leadership, vision, and the courage to break from outdated models.
If we want resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities, together, we must start by reshaping how we govern them.
Thank you.
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