Finalists announced for C40 and Siemens Awards

C40 and Siemens have announced the 29 cities that have been nominated as finalists for the City Climate Leadership Awards. The cities, which span five continents, have demonstrated leadership in climate solutions, as identified by an independent, seven-member judging panel consisting of former city mayors and architects as well as representatives from the World Bank, C40 and Siemens.

“The fight against climate change will be decided in cities,” said Stefan Denig, Head of Corporate Communications, Siemens’ Global Center of Competence Cities. “The C40 City Climate Leadership Group is one of the major city organisations worldwide. It represents 63 cities that stand for about 20 percent of the world’s GDP and this partnership allows Siemens to better interact with some of the most important cities on this planet, and support them in the fight against climate change.”

The inaugural event will take place at the Crystal, which was built by Siemens in London’s Royal Victoria Dock to showcase technologies for sustainable urban development. The programme consists of an awards ceremony on 4 September, and a conference on 5 September gathering mayors, city planners, and urban sustainability experts to address some of the most pressing climate change and sustainability challenges.

In addition, C40 will also be hosting a workshop with partners of the C40 Measurement & Planning Initiative  on 6 September, bringing together European C40 Cities and technical experts for a session on community-scale inventories and the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC). This workshop is the first of several regional workshops to support local capacity building for measuring GHG emissions at the community scale using the GPC.

Finalist cities include:

Africa

Johannesburg, Lagos

Asia & Oceania

Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Melbourne, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo

Europe

Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Rotterdam, Stockholm

North America

Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco

South America

Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo

Ten winning cities will be announced at the ceremony on 4 September, 2013 which will be attended by Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York and President of C40. Winners will represent the strongest projects in each of ten categories, which include Urban Transportation, Waste Management, Green Energy and Intelligent City Infrastructure.

“The winning cities will benefit from international recognition during the awards ceremony and the conference will offer cities the opportunity to share best practices and learn from each other,” said Denig.