Top five most-read ICLEI stories in 2024
Wrapping up 2024, we delve into the diverse array of topics that have resonated throughout the year, shaping and informing perspectives on sustainable urban development. From a selection of exemplary real-world city practices showcased at Daring Cities 2024 to how São Paulo, Brazil, is leading Latin America’s largest electric bus fleet. We also take a closer look at the upcoming IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, national associations of cities pioneering multilevel action through the CHAMP initiative and strategies for creating investment-ready projects. These stories not only highlight the progress achieved in 2024 but also provide inspiration toward more resilient and inclusive cities.
1) Daring to lead: Six cities driving climate action
Throughout the year, hundreds of cities’ representatives and their partners came together at the Daring Cities 2024 to exchange solutions and discuss their strategies to tackle the climate emergency. These exchanges 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.
Examples like Columbia, Missouri, USA, and Rosario, Argentina, showcase how cities are fostering multilevel governance. While Columbia is targeting 35% emissions reduction by 2035 and 100% by 2060 through its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), the city acknowledges that climate goals and the just transition cannot be reached without federal policy innovation and local-national coordination. Rosario, on the other hand, pioneered the local stocktake pilot initiative in Latin America in 2023, hosting a community-led gathering to discuss climate action. These inputs were then informed into the broader UNFCCC Global Stocktake, which concluded at COP28, demonstrating how local perspectives can influence global processes.
Cities and regions are adopting bottom-up approaches to foster inclusive urban spaces, as demonstrated by Glasgow, Scotland, UK. The city’s Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA), co-designed with high school students, empowered youth to shape play spaces. This innovative method amplified youth voices, achieving a 1714% increase in response rates compared to traditional surveys. Similarly, Nairobi, Kenya, declared the Mukuru slum settlement a Special Planning Area (SPA). Through household consultations and multidisciplinary collaboration, Mukuru’s residents co-created an integrated development plan addressing urgent needs like flooding and utility access.
Quezon City, Philippines is applying integrated climate solutions through a circular economy approach. In April 2024, the city launched the Kilo/s Kyusi Kilo Store, its first permanent shop selling preloved and new clothes donated by residents to tackle fast fashion waste while funding education programs. Zhytomyr, Ukraine, is transitioning from natural gas to bioenergy for heat and power, reducing natural gas reliance by 50% since 2012 with 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.
2) The City of São Paulo is on the move: Driving sustainable public transport
São Paulo, Brazil, a metropolis of 12 million, is leading Latin America’s largest electric bus fleet to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2028. With seven million daily bus commuters contributing 61% of its greenhouse gas emissions, the city is taking bold steps toward sustainable urban transit.
By the end of 2024, São Paulo intends to introduce 2,600 electric buses alongside improved infrastructure like new bus corridors, bicycle lanes, and trams powered by underground electrical systems. Moreover, the city is expanding its public transportation network by introducing its first public water transportation on the Guarapiranga Reservoir to reduce the two-hour bus ride from there to downtown to just a 20-minute aquatic journey.
3) Urban practitioners invited to help scope critical IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities
Marking a pivotal step in acknowledging cities as key players in the fight against climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (SRCC) highlights the IPCC’s renewed commitment to fostering collaboration between scientists and urban practitioners. This co-creation process, involving academia and urban experts from the outset, ensures the report’s relevance as an indispensable resource for cities and subnational governments globally. The aim is to make the SRCC genuinely actionable, bridging the gap between research and policy to drive effective urban climate solutions.
Set to be released by 2027, this article offers a comprehensive review of the SRCC, with ICLEI experts reflecting on its inception in 2016 and its expected outcomes, highlighting that the report marks the dawn of a new era where cities take center stage, shaping a world that not only survives but thrives by meeting human needs in harmony with nature.
4) Cities can bring CHAMP to life
At the ICLEI World Congress 2024 last June in São Paulo, Brazil, a call to action resonated loud and clear: Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn, Germany, and Chair of the Climate Action Governance Portfolio for the ICLEI Global Executive Committee, urged mayors to proactively engage with their national governments and national associations of local governments to enhance multilevel NDCs and support the CHAMP (Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships) initiative which aims to pursue efforts across all levels of governments for enhanced NDCs by 2025.
The call derived from Daring Cities Bonn Dialogues 2024, where Mayor Dörner spearheaded a resolution adopted by the Association of German Cities (Deutschen Städtetag, DST) pledging for CHAMP, marking the first national position of local governments supporting the initiative. As Vice President of the DST, Mayor Dörner invited urban leaders to replicate similar efforts and to convene annual Town Hall COPs as an innovative approach to connect local-national and global processes.
Mayor Dörner’s call kickstarted a global movement to push for stronger local involvement in national climate plans, with similar actions quickly followed by the National Front of Mayors (Frente Nacional de Prefeitas e Prefeitos, FNP) and the United States Conference of Mayors releasing similar resolutions pledging support for CHAMP. These efforts were led by ICLEI leaders.
5) Can you build an investment-ready climate project?
How can we build capacity for local and regional officials to access diverse funding sources for climate adaptation and mitigation projects? In February 2024, UrbanShift hosted the Marrakech City Academy for Africa in Morocco, engaging nearly 80 participants from 25 cities across seven countries in intensive learning on Climate Finance and Urban Biodiversity. ICLEI led the Accessing Urban Climate Finance training, equipping city actors with skills to unlock funding for their sustainable infrastructure projects. From exploring diverse funding sources to traditional and innovative financing instruments, participants gained invaluable insights into navigating the complex puzzle of urban sustainability financing.
