Why cities, towns and regions are creating a roadmap towards 100% renewable energy

Tackling the climate emergency – a security, socioeconomic and environmental crisis – requires the unprecedented transformation of energy systems and an immediate transition to renewable energy across all sectors. For a perspective on why cities and regions are going renewable and what a roadmap to 100% renewables looks like at the subnational level, we talked 

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African leaders show strength of subnational governments at international Climate Chance Summit in Accra

The annual Climate Chance Summit in Accra, Ghana brought together thousands of subnational actors to discuss innovative ways to tackle climate change and create thriving, sustainable cities on the African continent. The event showcased and encouraged local government climate action on the ground and financing mechanisms to support these efforts.

The Seoul Connection: One city’s mission to spread climate action

Seoul is home to about 10 million citizens and is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The rapidly growing population has also been critical to the city’s success in becoming one of the world’s most sustainable cities. Host of the upcoming 2019 Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change, Seoul Metropolitan Government 

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Top 5 takeaways for cities and regions from the UN Climate Action Summit

For this year’s Climate Action Summit in New York, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on leaders to bring concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, plans that would bring nations in line to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade and to net zero emissions by 

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A Game Changing Approach to Help African Cities Better Manage Their Natural Assets

While cities in sub-Saharan Africa are striving to protect and revitalize urban natural assets, such as river systems and coastal zones, capacity and resource constraints tend to hamper innovation and proactive planning. When implementing solutions to overcome the array of challenges that local governments face in managing their natural resources, a focus on human resources 

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Thirty-seven mayors commit to collective responsibility for creating sustainable African capital cities

A record thirty-seven mayors of African capital cities committed to collective responsibility to build sustainable African capital cities at the fifth African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum (ACCSF) last month. Through the adoption of the Tshwane Declaration of 2019, the mayors committed to increasing the role of cities in the realisation and localisation of Agenda 2063 

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Resilient Cities Don’t Fear Rainy Days

Lykke Leonardsen is constantly thinking about rainy days… even when it’s sunny outside. But you really can’t blame her. Ever since Copenhagen’s 100-year storm on July 2 of 2011,  which caused major flooding and extensive infrastructure damage, city officials such as Leonardsen, who heads Copenhagen’s program for Resilient and Sustainable City Solutions, have been preoccupied 

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Want to step up climate action in your city? Invest in your staff

Although they pave the way for national and international financial support, sophisticated emissions inventories are often the domain of the richest and most powerful cities. In other words, strong inventories often come from those with the resources to hire staff or pay third-party consultants to prepare those inventories. This perpetuates a difficult cycle: national and 

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Mayors of Katowice and Bonn: Our call for deep transformation and greater ambition at COP24

By Ashok Sridharan, Mayor of Bonn and President of ICLEI and Marcin Krupa, Mayor of Katowice and member of the the ICLEI Urban Transitions Alliance                         Next month, we will join nations in Katowice, Poland for COP24, the 24th United Nations Climate Change Conference. 

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One city, many realities: The climate story in Lima

Peru is moving forward on climate action. Just few days before the Resilient Cities congress, the government passed Law 30754 – the Framework Act on Climate Change. This law aims to establish principles, approaches and general provisions to design, execute, monitor and evaluate public policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Ministry of Environment 

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