The United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2020, under the shadows of a once-in-a-century pandemic, serious challenges to multilateralism, and life-threatening climate and biodiversity emergencies. Due to the global pandemic, these celebrations will be taking place online, but the virtual forum by no means reduces the significance of processes and decisions that will
From left to right: Shinjiro Koizumi, Minister of Environment of Japan; Minna Arve, Mayor of Turku, Finland; Ashok Sridharan, Mayor of Bonn, Germany, and ICLEI President. One of the toughest parts of fulfilling the Paris Agreement goals is understanding the path to success. What does it take to muster the political will and support to
On the day that it was announced that COP26 will be postponed a full year because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, mayors, governors and national government representatives from around the world came together virtually to show how they are continuing to fight for climate action, even in the face of the global pandemic. Twenty-five mayors
The longest-ever climate conference, COP25, concluded on Sunday. The talks punted a number of meaningful decisions to 2020, and some results were even cause for disappointment. But those of us working for local and regional governments are used to taking the lead on ambition. While we are frustrated at the lack of progress on the decisions coming out of the negotiations, we still found four reasons to remain hopeful after this COP25.
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
We need to dig in and build stronger links between climate science, urban policy and practice. The interconnection between the three perspectives is critical to creating coherent policy frameworks driven by hard data and scientific evidence, and informed by practitioner expertise. Urban areas account for about 70 percent of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, and
Every year, there is a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP). The next one (COP23) will be in Bonn, Germany in November 2017. In between COPs, the UNFCCC organizes mid-year climate negotiation sessions – the so-called intersessionals – which are usually held in Bonn. The May
2016 marked the end of an important period in which nations sought political consensus around the global development agenda. They came to agree that sustainable development should, in fact, be the global agenda for change, consequently adopting major international agreements, like the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. The New
ICLEI at HABITATIII PrepCom3 ICLEI towards HABITATIII Here is an overview of 27 July and early hours of 28 July 1- Side event of ICLEI and University Tekniki Malaysia, focusing on advancing sustainability of Asian cities and regions effectively reflected the diversity of topic in the region through its multinational (Malaysia, S. Korea, Japan, Indonesia,
CONFERENCE LINKS Conference website – http://unfccc.int/meetings/bonn_may_2016/meeting/9413.php IISD Earth Negotiations Coverage is available at http://www.iisd.ca/climate/sb44/ ICLEI DOCUMENTS LGMA Intervention at the Conference Opening and SBI44 Opening Remarks of Ashok Sridharan, Mayor of Bonn and Member of ICLEI Global Executive Committee, at the Reception on 17 May 2016 Transformative Actions Programme May 2016 Update presented at Follow-up