In view of rapid urbanization in North-East Asia and its contribution of over one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions, North-East Asia Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) launched the North-East Asia Low Carbon City Platform (NEA-LCCP) in 2014. NEA-LCCP is a platform for agencies and organizations working on low carbon cities to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration in order to collectively support cities in pursuing low carbon development.

In partnership with Innovative Green Development Program (iGDP), Energy Foundation and ICLEI, NEASPEC held a workshop in Beijing on 16 June. The Workshop gathered cities, national agencies, experts and civil society, to kick off two activities of NEA-LCCP: (i) peer review and (ii) comparative study. The NEA-LCCP peer review is a review exercise on a host city's low carbon development, by a team of reviewers consisting of experts from other cities and agencies. It aims to support the host city for an assessment of its low carbon development, as well as to facilitate peer-to-peer networking and experience-sharing. Comparative study, on the other hand, is a country-level study which will generate a comprehensive and systematic overview of national approaches, and to identify good practices for sharing information and identifying cooperation opportunities.

The Workshop welcomed and supported both activities and highlighted the value of peer review in providing in-depth insights of city experiences, both successes and failures, which will complement other indicator-based assessments. Pilot peer reviews are planned to take place between 2017 and 2018 in China, Japan and Republic of Korea, with potential to expand to more cities and countries after the pilot phase.