Cities cover 3% of Earth’s surface and account for 70 % of global energy demands.124 According to calculations, cities are responsible for about 75 % of the GHGs, that are released into the atmosphere.125 Furthermore, more than half of the population lives in cities.126 Due to these facts, cities are actors which have a crucial impact on producing carbon emissions, but at the same time a possibility to contribute to climate change. While in the
119 This is reinforced by Valtioneuvoston periaatepäätös kestävien ympäristö- ja energiaratkaisujen (clean-tech-ratkaisut) edistäminen julkisissa hankinnoissa. Valtioneuvosto, 2013 and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment 2016.
120 Valovirta et al. 2017, p. 55.
121 Sitra: Finnish Municipalities climate targets and measures, 2019.
122 Ibid.
123 According to Sitra 2019, half of transport emissions in Finland are produced by the 50 largest municiplai-ties.
124 C40: Why cities? 2019.
125 McCarney Environment and Urbanization ASIA 2012, p. 14; McCarney 2013, p. 89.
126 IPCC ARC3.2. p.1.
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year 2015 about 55 % of the world population lived in cities, the number was expected to increase to 68 % by 2018.127 The urbanization coupled with the growing population brings forth the importance of cities, as well as environmental questions such as climate change.
Adaptation and the ability to bounce back constitute priorities for every city. Cities have taken a more remarkable role in mitigating climate change.128 Cities in the industrialized world such as Chicago, London and New York City, have long made efforts to combat climate change.129 In addition, cities from developing countries, such as Cape Town, Mexico City and Sao Paolo, are making efforts.130 There are also global city networks to share the best practices for mitigation.131 Cities are vulnerable to climate change impacts.132 Almost all the impacts of climate change will have direct or indirect consequences for their ecosystems and biodiversity. Additionally, ecosystem services providing human health and well-being will be influenced.133
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has estimated that local authorities are responsible for over 70 % of climate change decreasing measures and as much as 90 % of climate change.134 Cities play a key role in ecological market transformation to promote more sustainable and innovative solutions via public purchasing and what comes to reframing the ecology-economy, relationships and implementing policy choices. 135 For reference, London´s carbon footprint is as much as the GHG emissions of the whole of Greece or Portugal.136 Cities face climate change related consequences on two sides: direct and indirect impacts. Direct include rising temperatures, heat stress, water security,137 rising sea-levels, accelerating massmigration, extreme weather events, flooding and food security issues – to mention a few. The indirect consequences of climate change brings multiple
127 United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs: News: 68 % of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says the UN.
128 Hoornweg et al. 2011, p. 7.
129 Lin 2018.
130 Ibid.
131 Hoornweg et al. 2011, p. 55.
132 Hoornweg et al. 2011, p. 7.
133 Such as protection from storms, heatwaves, air pollution. Taking care of food security and freshwater re-sources. Gomez-Baggethun – Bartonc, Ecological Economics 2013.
134 UNDP and climate change 2016 p. 30.
135 ”City authorities and policy makers have an important role to play in the transition to a circular economy.
The public sector is uniquely placed in taking the required long-term perspective when setting ambitious goals and driving positive change, with city officials and policy makers positioned as key actors.” Climate KIC EIT 2019, p. 4; Fiorino 2017, p. 291.
136 Lin 2018, p. 72.
137 Maton et al., Climate Change 2013.
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challenges; the concern about air quality, waste management, infrastructure, housing and energy resources.
One of the researched effects, is called the Urban Heat Island.138 The Urban Heat Island is a phenomenon which occurs and forms in a situation when the nights are clear, days are sunny, and the air does not move. Building materials such as bricks, concrete, asphalt work as heat stores.139 It means that urban areas cool much more slowly and lose less energy by radiation compared to the countryside. Cities become heat traps.140 When heatwaves become more common, high temperatures will cause health challenges and deaths. 141 Also in Finland most citizens live in cities and this urbanization development has been predicted to continue. The infrastructure is not planned to face heatwaves. Local authorities have a key role in not only mitigating but also adapting processes.
In the green economy142 transition (GET) economic objectives and policies are integrated with energy, transportation, manufacturing and infrastructure. In this ongoing transition process, public procurement is a mechanism which potentially may precipitate the transition to a green economy and also stimulate private actors to focus on more sustainable manufacturing. GPP aims at integrating environmental interests into the purchasing processes of public entities.143 It may work as a promoting change of unsustainable consumption manners144 due to the fact that public procurement authorities act as environmental policy designers and key actors in the green markets at the same time.145
Cities need to prepare by evaluating current and future risks caused by climate change.146 They need to make choices, which improve resilience to extreme weather events and aim for reducing GHG emissions.147 Impacts of climate change will vary from city to city. Cities can
138 Oke, Quaterly Journal of the Royal Meterological Society 1982.
139 Masson et al., Climate Change 2013, p. 775.
140 Ibid.
141 Ibid.
142 Green economy is not just efficient, it is also low-carbon and socially fair. According to UNEP Towards a Green Economy 2011, p. 2.
143 UNEP Towards a Green Economy 2011, p. 2.
144 Appolloni et al. 2013, p. 111.
145 Ibid.
146 IPCC ARC3.2., p. 1.
147 Ibid.
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be the main implementers of climate resiliency, adaptation and mitigation.148 However, cit-ies cannot use the full potential in their climate change leadership without transformation.149 It means changes in energy, transportation, water and land use, green consumption and life-styles.150 Public procurement can be used as one transformation tool. The sooner cities in-corporate climate criteria, the higher potential of cities can be harnessed. Cities are already now facing challenges such as rising temperatures and increasing annual precipitation. Fur-thermore, coastal cities will face the threat of rising sea level in the near future.151
In Finland, the annual temperature will be higher in the future and will actually rise 1.5 or 2 times faster compared to the global average temperature rising.152 According to projected scenarios, in particular, annual precipitation and temperatures in winter time will be rising.153 The strong windstorms will be more common and heat peaks will become higher compared to current levels. These heat peaks are anticipated to cause hard circumstances in urban sur-roundings.154 In addition, the sea level of the Gulf of Finland will be higher in the future.
The estimate calculations of sea level rise are important for coastal cities.155 Due to these estimates, cities` can prepare and design their construction and planning, as well as, flood protection measures.156 These weather changes will have an impact on Finnish cities and their citizens in various ways. Hence, mitigation and adaptation efforts are needed to prevent the deterioration.
148 About 66 % of cities in the EU have a mitigation plan. An adaptation plan exists 26 % of the cities, and a joint adaptation and mitigation plan 17 % of the EU cities. About 33 % of the cities do not have any kind of local climate plan. Reclien et al., Journal of Clean Production 2018.
149 IPCC ARC3.2., p. 2.
150 Rosenzweig – Solecki, Nature Climate Change 2018, p. 757.
151 IPCC ARC5.
nt Report 2013. Chapter 13 is concluded that sealevel will rise about 1 meter (m) by year 2100, depending on the model from 0.26 to 0.55 m to 0.52 to 0.98 m. p. 13 ; According to C40 cities: Staying afloat: The Urban response to sea level rise, by 2050 about 570 coastal cities will face 0,5 meters sealevel rising having influ-ence on about 800 million people.
152 Under the high-emission a Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 calculations for years 2040–
2069, surface air temperatures in winter are estimated to be increased by 2–7°C relative to the air temperature levels during years 1981–2010. Ruosteenoja – Jylhä – Kämäräinen 2016, p. 17. These calculations are based on four different scenarios RCP8.5, RCP6.0, RCP4.5 and RCP2.6. Ruosteenoja – Räisänen – Venäläinen – Kämäräinen – Pirinen, Terra 2016, p. 5.
153 The annual precipitation percentage in the worst climate scenario is 20 % and the mildest one 8 %. Ruos-teenoja 2013, p. 4.
154 Jylhä – Ruosteenoja – Räisänen – Fronzek 2011, p. 20; Haanpää et al. 2011, p. 104.
155 Johansson – Pellikka – Kahma – Ruosteenoja, Journal of Marine Systems 2014, p. 44.
156 The sea level rise will be highest In the Gulf of Finland due to the weakest land uplift. The average sce-nario is that the sea level will rise 0.24–0.33 m from 2000 to 2100. The highest scesce-nario estimates a 0.92 m rise at Hamina and the highest scenario for Helsinki the capital city 0.89 m. Johansson – Pellikka – Kahma – Ruosteenoja, Journal of Marine Systems 2014, p. 44.
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Cities are autonomous entities and they are free to make decisions regarding their land-plan-ning, infrastructure and purchasing criteria. It is possible to focus on environment-friendly solutions through public purchasing. In Finland, municipalities operate in purchasing sectors such as construction and building 21 %, transport 11 %, social welfare 10 %, waste sector 6 %, energy 4 %, water supply 3 %, infrastructure 3 %, safety 2 %, education 2 %, heathcare, environment, employment 1 %.157 Public procurement is one way in which cities can take climate action. Resilience to climate change is a growing priority in urban decision-making.
Public procurement strategies and criteria are important tools for directing consuming to greener and more sustainable solutions. This means transformations in social, ecological and built infrastructure components of urban systems.158