Daring to lead: Six cities driving climate action 

Hundreds of cities’ representatives and their partners have come together at the Daring Cities 2024 to exchange solutions and discuss their strategies to tackle the climate emergency. These exchanges have produced a set of key findings, which emerge from three core pillars: Multilevel partnerships and governance, bottom-up approaches for inclusive cities, and holistic and integrated solutions.

How does this translate into practice? The event showcased many real-life cases that offer inspiration for other local and regional governments to dare to take bold, transformative steps forward.

Daring Cities 2024 Key Finding #1: Cities and regions have the power – and the success stories – to demand bold multilevel partnerships and governance for more ambitious climate action

1. Columbia, Missouri, USA: Spearheading multilevel action 

“We can’t reach our climate goals and the just transition without federal policy innovation and local-national coordination,” said Barbara Buffaloe, Mayor of Columbia who serves on the ICLEI Regional Executive Committee for North America. 

Columbia adopted its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) in 2019, targeting 35% emissions reduction by 2035 and 100% by 2060. The city updates the CAAP every five years to stay on track and ensure it serves the community. “Now is a crucial time to review our plan, as cities and subnational governments finally have a seat at the global decision-making table,” noted Mayor Buffaloe, who attended COP28, where her country endorsed the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) initiative, committing to working with local and other subnational governments for planning, financing and implementing climate strategies and actions ahead of the revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due at COP30 in 2025.

Building on this momentum, last June Mayor Buffaloe co-sponsored a resolution adopted by the United States Conference of Mayors calling cities to update their climate targets and communicate them to the federal government. The resolution also encourages the U.S. Government to act on its endorsement of the CHAMP initiative and to support Town Hall COPs as a key mechanism for receiving local input to secure strong multilevel U.S. Nationally Determined Contributions in 2025.

“When cities work together, we can actually deliver on the promises that our country has made,” concluded the Mayor.

2. Rosario, Argentina: Pioneering the local stocktake in Latin America

In 2023, Rosario was one of the 26 cities across 18 countries -and the only municipality in Latin America- to host a local stocktake. Led by ICLEI as the focal point of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency, this local stocktake pilot initiative incorporated a critical local perspective into the broader UNFCCC Global Stocktake exercise, which concluded at COP28.

“This exercise was an opportunity to strengthen residents’ participation to come together to discuss how we act in the face of the climate emergency and how we can influence global processes from the very local context,” said Andrea Paoloni, General Director of Climate Action and Environmental Quality.

Building on this success, Rosario plans to continue gathering residents’ input through the Town Hall COPs initiative, an iteration of the local stocktake aiming to accelerate multilevel collaboration and community engagement ahead of COP30.

View the session: CHAMP & Town Hall COPs: Connecting local climate action to national and global goals

Daring Cities 2024 Key Finding #2: Cities and regions must embrace a bottom-up approach to create truly inclusive urban spaces for all 

3. Glasgow, Scotland: Shaping play with youth voices

“What does play mean to you?” This is one of the questions of Glasgow City Council’s innovative Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA). Piloted in 2023, this interactive survey was co-designed with high-school students aged 12-16 to give them a voice in shaping their city’s play spaces.

Etive Currie, Senior Spatial Planner at Glasgow City Council, emphasized: “Including young voices in the design process has been key not only to develop the assessment but to share their lived experience stories and to increase the response rates.” The results showed over 5,000 responses from 18 high schools, reaching 17% of Glasgow’s youth population. This represents a staggering 1714% increase in response rate compared with traditional methods.

However, the findings reveal surprising insights: Shopping centers are the most popular hangouts for young people. The main barrier to outdoor play isn’t lack of space but feeling unsafe due to other people’s presence.

Moving forward, Glasgow aims to expand the PSA to all secondary schools and co-design spaces with young people based on these insights. “The PSA proves that when we listen to youth, we can create cities that truly work for everyone,” concluded Ms. Currie.

Watch the session: Thriving cities: Celebrating climate action through health, nature and culture

4. Nairobi, Kenya: Upgrading slums settlements through a community center approach

Home to nearly 500,000 people facing constant threats of eviction, extreme overcrowding, and limited access to basic services, Mukuru is one of Nairobi’s largest urban slum settlements. Frequent flooding and industrial pollution further exacerbate its challenges, making it one of the city’s most marginalized areas.

In 2017, the Muungano wa Wanavijiji (Kenyan Slum Dwellers) and Slum Dwellers International (SDI) successfully advocated for Mukuru to be declared a Special Planning Area (SPA) by the Nairobi City Council. This designation allowed for the creation of an integrated development plan to address the community’s urgent needs. 

A key element of the plan was participatory planning. “We organized consultations at the household level, ensuring every family had a voice,” said Kimani Joseph, Executive Director of SDI Kenya. 

With multidisciplinary teams and strong community involvement, Mukuru’s SPA initiative now serves as a model for inclusive urban planning, inspiring other cities. The City Council has since engaged in key infrastructure projects, including road construction and utility connectivity, ensuring residents have access to essential services like sewer and water systems. Although much work remains, the community continues to build on these lessons, driving progress forward.

Watch the session: Cities for all: Bottom-up action for just urban development

Daring Cities 2024 Key Finding #3: Cities and regions are implementing holistic and integrated solutions to tackle the climate emergency 

5. Quezon City, Philippines: Extending the life of textiles to support education

“With fast fashion becoming a huge problem, used textiles are now seen as the ‘new plastics,'” said Andrea Villaroman, Head of the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Department at Quezon City Hall.

With 69% of textile production relying on synthetic and plastic fibers, the city recognized the urgent need to tackle fast fashion waste. Their solution? In April, Quezon City launched the Kilo/s Kyusi Kilo Store—its first permanent shop selling preloved and new clothes donated by residents.

Items are sold either by weight or individually, with higher-quality goods priced separately. All proceeds fund the city’s Zero Illiteracy program, which provides student tutorials to improve reading and math skills.

This initiative follows two successful pop-up stores last year, which raised enough to hire 137 tutors in 2023, helping 1,272 students across 25 public schools, each receiving 50 hours of tutoring.

Watch the session: Beyond the bin: Circular solutions for urban waste in Southeast Asian cities

6. Zhytomyr, Ukraine: Transitioning from natural gas to bioenergy for heat and power

As winter approaches, ensuring a reliable and uninterrupted heat and power supply has become a top priority for the city. Faced with surging natural gas prices and supply uncertainties, Zhytomyr is tapping into its greatest natural resource: Its forests.

Since 2021, Zhytomyr has built two combined heat and power (CHP) plants that run on wood chips from its abundant forest resources—the largest in Ukraine. Two more plants are in development, all backed by loans and grants from Western financial institutions, the Swiss government, and local funding.

By converting local biomass into heat and electricity, Zhytomyr isn’t just keeping homes, schools, and hospitals warm—it’s building energy independence and environmental resilience. The results reveal that natural gas consumption has plummeted by over 50% from 2012 to 2023, with an 80% reduction projected by 2030. “This significant reduction aligns with national and global efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of fossil fuels and transition toward cleaner, more sustainable energy sources,” said Aksinia Sinko, Project Manager at Zhytomyr City Development Agency.

Watch the session: Coupling local climate solutions: Integrating energy, mobility, and finance

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