Ten global cities present climate action plans ahead of COP21

Ten global cities, representing 58 million people and more than US$3 trillion GDP, from five continents, have joined Rio de Janeiro in announcing that they have met all planning and reporting requirements of the Compact of Mayors. In doing so, the cities presented ambitious climate action plans ahead of COP21–the Paris Climate Conference.

Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Melbourne, New York, Oslo, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney and Washington DC have now reached the Compact compliance milestone; their achievement builds on local efforts to combat climate change through membership of city networks, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), founding partners of the Compact.

“Through the Compact of Mayors, cities are making a major contribution toward global progress on climate change,” said Michael Bloomberg, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. “They are also showing their national governments that more ambitious goals are both possible and achievable. And–perhaps most importantly of all–they are proving that fighting climate change and increasing economic growth go hand in hand.”

Launched one year ago by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, Michael Bloomberg, the Compact of Mayors is a global coalition of mayors and city officials pledging to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance resilience to climate change, and track their progress transparently. The Compact enables cities to publicly commit to deep GHG emissions reductions, make existing targets and plans public, and report on their progress annually in the carbonn Climate Registry or CDP using the Global Protocol for Community Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC), the global reporting standard that is compatible with international practices.

“I applaud the ten cities for their bold commitment and leadership so critically important in the months leading up to the UN climate summit,” said Eduardo Paes, C40 Chair and Mayor of Rio de Janeiro. “The more cities that commit to the Compact and move quickly and decisively to meet all its requirements, the bigger impact we will have. I look forward to welcoming more cities into our growing coalition.”

Park Won Soon, ICLEI President and Mayor of Seoul noted: “The Compact of Mayors seeks to enlighten the international community and convince them that cities can play a vital role that is truly effective in the face of climate change. This important step will lay the foundation for global city networks, ICLEI, UCLG and C40 to assume substantive roles at the UN climate conference in Paris and within the framework of a new climate treaty for post 2020.”

To date, 165 cities, representing nearly 234 million people, have committed to the Compact. In September, US President Barack Obama announced that 15 new US cities had joined the Compact of Mayors, and set a goal of having 100 US cities before COP21 at the end of November.

“The world’s largest cities are uniting to develop solutions that enable concrete action to reduce emissions and address climate change,” said Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Co-President of UCLG. “It is in this spirit that I encourage all cities to commit to the Compact of Mayors and that I have invited all mayors, local leaders and their organisations to gather at Paris City Hall on the 4th of December during COP 21 to show our partnership in delivering ambitious climate commitments.”