Your guide to global urban transformation: Top 3 ICLEI World Congress 2018 takeaways

The ICLEI World Congress 2018 in Montréal brought together more than 1,000 people with one unifying question in mind: How do we build a sustainable urban world? With 177 cities and regions and more than 120 political leaders in the room, from Warsaw, Poland to Phuentsholing, Bhutan and from Honiara City, Solomon Islands to Cape 

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The ICLEI Montréal Commitment in action

The ICLEI World Congress 2018 brought new energy and momentum to sustainable urban development. ICLEI and partners announced new initiatives and strengthened partnership to kick start implementation of the ICLEI Montréal Commitment and Strategic Vision. Here are some of the key announcements from the ICLEI World Congress 2018 to watch: The UN Environment Principles for Sustainable 

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Action in the time of global change

The triennial ICLEI World Congress represents a unique convening point for the growing global ICLEI network. It is a platform to take stock of our urban world – the challenges ahead of us, past success we can leverage and the path towards global urban transformation. The pace and scale of global change is unprecedented. On 

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5 pathways to systemic urban change

From climate change to urbanization, the rate and scale of global change is unprecedented. These impacts are changing the face of everyday life and posing substantial risk to communities and natural systems. Sustainable urban development will play a decisive role in global development. As cities grow and change, so do the demands on social infrastructure, 

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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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A snapshot of urban resilience

At the end of last year, nations had submitted nine National Adaptation Plans under the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Now, there are 24 submissions from the total 197 nations that have signed the treaty. Local and regional governments are moving ahead themselves to advance resilience planning. They are progressing towards the 

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Stories from Mozambique: High impact, low cost interventions

by Sophia Rettberg, student at University College Maastricht and Resilient Cities 2018 volunteer Coastal cities in Mozambique are responding to a range of hazards – and often doing so with limited resources and funding. At Resilient Cities 2018, mayors and senior municipal managers of Pemba and Quelimane presented some key projects aiming to address these 

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Multilevel climate governance: A hot topic for the next decade

The Talanoa Dialogue launched at COP23, the 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2017, is designed to take stock of and strengthen climate action globally. It also opens the door to a more inclusive and collaborative approach to climate governance by connecting nations and climate stakeholders. The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues, facilitated by ICLEI – Local Governments 

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Stockholm Pursues Climate Holy Grail: a Fossil Fuel-Free Future — Part 3: Clean Heat

By John J. Berger, PhD, an energy and environmental policy specialist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who is currently working on a new book on resolving the climate crisis. — Early Climate Efforts STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—How did Stockholm’s energy transition begin? To properly answer that question, I went to talk with Gustaf Landahl, the head 

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When science meets policy and practice: Top 3 ways to achieve Paris goals

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 

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