Ten cities win global awards at climate talks

Ten cities have been recognised for their leadership in tackling climate change across key sectors during the COP21 climate talks in Paris.

The third annual C40 Cities Awards selected 10 cities from 33 finalists by a jury panel, headed by Felipe Calderón, former President of Mexico. According to recent C40 research, members have taken 10,000 city climate actions since the last major COP in Copenhagen.

“As leaders from around the world meet in Paris to agree binding emission targets, the efforts of these 10 award-winning cities remind us that innovation drives results, and concrete solutions and actions–that improve the health, well-being and economic opportunities of urban citizens–can be implemented right now,” said Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio and C40 Chair.

Winning cities, including Boston, Johannesburg, Rotterdam and Nanjing each demonstrated innovation and ambition to build low-carbon and climate resilient urban communities.

Winners were recognised for a diverse set of ambitious policies, projects or programmes, including Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, which sets a roadmap for it to become the greenest city in the world by 2020, and Wuhan’s ecological restoration of one of the city’s largest landfill sites.

On accepting Boston’s award for Smart Cities & Smart Community Engagement, Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space, Boston, said: “We’re honoured to be recognised as a climate leader for our work with Greenovate Boston, especially on a global stage. We have a lot to learn from other cities for their innovative and ambitious climate solutions. And that’s exactly why we’re here–to share and learn.”

Blackmon also revealed that the city is now fully compliant with the Compact of Mayors–a global coalition of mayors and city officials committed to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions.

This year’s winners in the ten award categories include:

• Boston (Smart Cities & Smart Community Engagement)
• Cape Town (Adaptation Implementation)
• Johannesburg (Finance & Economic Development)
• Nanjing (Transportation)
• New York (Building Energy Efficiency)
• Rotterdam (Adaptation Planning & Assessment)
• Stockholm (Sustainable Communities)
• Vancouver (Carbon Measurement & Planning)
• Washington, DC (Green Energy)
• Wuhan (Solid Waste)

Prior to the awards MasterCard and C40 announced a new partnership on mobility management that will aim to better integrate and optimise different modes of public transport in cities.

“If you think about the population in cities today, and that number doubling in the next 40 years, the infrastructure of most cities in the world are just not going to cope with that growth,” Hany Fam, President of MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships, told Cities Today. “If you are able to shift 5 to 10 percent of people off the peak in a transit system that allows the city to push its capex expenditure up by two years. That two year big city shift, like London or New York, is worth more than US$150 million a year in savings.”

Fam added: “C40 have a proven track record in engaging cities around the health and quality of life in cities. We are interested in the efficacy, quality of life and economic experience in cities. They [C40] have the ability to engage cities in a quality of life dialogue, so when you put the two together it’s really a marriage made in heaven.”