Sustainability and Local Governments in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Photo credit: The Paris Photographer The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fragile economic, social and environmental underpinnings of our world today. Although we have access to advanced scientific and technological resources, as well as strategies for disaster preparedness, and despite repeated specific warnings about the risks of pandemics, the world was not ready when 

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ICLEI’s take on what to expect in 2018: The year for a reality check

Last year ended with a sense that the momentum on sustainable development is durable. It was a hard blow when the U.S. backed out of the Paris Agreement, but the global and U.S. domestic response was swift and forceful. All in all, 2017 reaffirmed that nations, cities and towns, regions, civil society and the private 

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Local governments: a united global force for climate action

Local governments show consistently strong leadership in mitigating and coping with the effects of climate change. They are taking action to improve their cities and towns, while rallying for greater climate ambition around the world. The voice of local governments is growing stronger and clearer as they become an increasingly unified force, backed by concrete 

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The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy: the next frontier for cities and towns leading the way

By Mark Watts, Executive Director, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group & Gino Van Begin, Secretary General, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability When UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael R. Bloomberg suggested creating a Compact of Mayors to mirror the UN programme for national commitments on climate change, it was not 

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3 Days to the World Congress: 5 Things to Look Forward To

The World Congress 2015 is nearly upon us, with participants from all over the world ready to talk about how to build a sustainable society. Reaching this goal requires an open-minded approach and the belief that we are not bound by our previous actions or by global economic forces. Many ICLEI Members are already forging 

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Cities will lead the fight against climate change at the ICLEI World Congress 2015

Over the last 15-20 years, national governments have been struggling to reach a consensus on the action that is required to limit catastrophic global warming. Yet outside of the high-level conferences, there is hope and progress. All over the world, cities and local governments have been developing and implementing revolutionary practices to mitigate and adapt 

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