Climate Action 2014-2015

RESILIENT CITIES
Winners of the 2nd annual C40 & Siemens City Climate Leadership Awards, held in New York
during Climate Week 2014
and disseminated. With this in mind, new
cities in Africa and China have recently
joined the network.
An additional priority for cities
is resilience. We all know that the
consequences of climate change are
happening right now, and are increasing
in frequency and intensity. In 2013
alone, the world saw 41 weather disasters
that each caused more than US$1
billion worth of damages. Cities are at
the front line of these events and our
citizens are the victims. The statistical
rise of casualties and economic losses
from extreme weather events will only
continue unless resilience becomes an
intrinsic part of our long-term policies,
our investments and our lives.
So, how do we evolve? We must grow,
boost collaboration and develop ways
to work in tandem with national
organisations. One such important step
is the creation of the global Compact of
Mayors, the world’s largest effort for cities
to fight climate change. The Compact
will enable cities to publicly commit to
deep GHG emissions reductions, make
existing targets and plans public, and
report on their progress annually, using a
newly-standardised measurement system
that is compatible with international
practices, the Global Protocol on
"Cities have an
enormous responsibility
to address the risks posed
by climate change."
Community-scale GHG Emissions
(GPC). Through this effort, cities will be
choosing to meet the same requirements
proposed for the international climate
negotiations that will lead to a global
climate treaty in 2015.
Launched by UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and UN Special Envoy
for Cities and Climate Change Michael
R Bloomberg at the 2014 UN Climate
Summit in New York, key partners of
the Compact are C40, ICLEI – Local
Governments for Sustainability and the
United Cities and Local Governments
(UCLG) – with support from UN-Habitat.
Therefore, as mayors, we are committing
to set ambitious climate targets, make
those voluntary commitments public,
and hold ourselves accountable through
rigorous and transparent reporting.
We recently announced that existing
commitments of 228 cities from the C40,
ICLEI and UCLG networks will save
a cumulative 2.8 gigatonnes of carbon
dioxide equivalent (GtCO 2
e) by 2020.
That is important for three reasons:
First, because 2020 is the earliest that
a new inter-governmental Climate
Treaty is expected to come into force
Second, because it is the year by
which global emissions need to have
peaked if we are to get on a trajectory
to avoid run-away climate change; and
Third, because the 2.8Gt of emissions
reductions pledged by this small group
of cities is equivalent to one-fifth of
the so-called ‘emissions gap’ – the
difference between what national
governments have already committed
to do and the total cut in emissions
that is needed to get onto that
downward trajectory.
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