C40 Mayors, city representatives, and hundreds of urban and sustainability leaders are set to gather in Mexico City for the sixth biennial C40 Mayors Summit, 30 November - 2 December 2016. The Summit will advance urban solutions to climate change and highlight the leadership role of cities in addressing climate change and implementing the Paris agreement. Learn more about the agenda, speakers, and sponsors for this important event.
Mayors continue to deliver important, innovative policies and programmes that reduce emissions and improve resiliency. The C40 Cities Awards, launched in 2013, recognize those successes, catalyze ambition, and share lessons with cities around the world.
The fourth annual awards ceremony will coincide with the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City on December 1, 2016.
C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change.
Acting both locally and collaboratively, C40 cities are having a meaningful global impact in reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. C40 brings together a unique set of assets and creates a shared sense of purpose. C40 offers cities an effective forum where they can collaborate, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change.
COP21 brought cities into the spotlight. C40 is proud to help shine that light a little brighter. Because cities and mayors are acting now, and we're right beside them as they become necessary leaders in this vital cause.
As the world moves forward from Paris, we're showcasing stories that help explain why cities are so critically important for implementing on the goals set forth in that historic accord. C40's road from Paris moves through member cities Beijing for the Second China-U.S. Climate-Smart Low-Carbon Cities Summit; Singapore for the World Cities Summit; Quito for Habitat III; and later in the year, Mexico City for the sixth biennial C40 Mayors Summit.
Cities100 – a joint effort of Sustainia, C40, and Realdania – proves that innovative and progressive climate action is well underway in cities around the world.
Here are 100 solutions from 61 cities which show how local governments around the world are taking the necessary steps to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while at the same time creating valuable co-benefits for their economies, communities and citizens' health.
Learn more or view the foreward by Anne Hidalgo, C40 Chair-Elect and Mayor of Paris.
In 2015, cities played a central role at COP21 in Paris, pushing national leaders to reach the ambitious Paris Climate Agreement. The New Urban Agenda, to be adopted at the Habitat III Conference in Quito next week, will join the Paris Agreement, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and other recent international agreements as part of a global framework for sustainability.
Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo has been unanimously elected by the C40 Steering Committee to succeed Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes as our next Chair. In her new role, Mayor Hidalgo will build on the legacy and accomplishments of Chairs before her, while bringing a new strategic vision and set of priorities to the organization. Learn more on our blog.
Collaboratively assembled by experts from leading non-profit, government, journalistic, and industry organizations, Toward Sustainable Cities clearly demonstrates why cities are "extraordinary labratories for testing and implementing innovative solutions" to our toughest climate challenges. Read more, including C40 Chair-Elect Mayor Anne Hidalgo's contribution, "Cities are central to climate issues."
C40 has announced the 35 finalists competing in ten urban climate action categories for the fourth-annual C40 Cities Awards, sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies and BYD. The winners will be announced on December 1, 2016, at a ceremony in Mexico City, held alongside the sixth biennial C40 Mayors Summit.
C40 responds to the needs of its member cities. Today, at COP21 in Paris, C40 and Mastercard announced a new partnership to launch a Mobility Management network.
The network will assist cities to provide cheaper and quicker ways to improve transport capacity, efficiency and accessibility than investing in new infrastructure, which can be expensive and time-consuming, and can neglect efficiencies within existing systems.
Our latest research, Unlocking Climate Action in Megacities: The City Practitioners’ View provides the most detailed analysis to date of the barriers that cities and their mayors face when implementing policies and projects that will deliver on their ambitions to tackle climate change. This is a vital step in overcoming these obstacles and realizing the scale of action needed if the world is to deliver on the 1.5 degrees target of the Paris Agreement.
By hearing from city practitioners what are the key barriers to climate action, the report hopes to establish a shared understanding and form the basis of an international, collective response.
A Welcome Message from C40 Leadership
The sixth biennial Mayors Summit, C40’s flagship event, will take place in Ciudad de México from November 30 – December 2, 2016. Hosted by Mayor of Ciudad de México Miguel Ángel Mancera and led by current C40 Chair, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes, and Chair Elect Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, the event draws mayors and leading thinkers from around the world to advance a shared agenda through collaboration and knowledge sharing, and increase visibility about the global potential of climate actions in cities.
C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes is a global ambassador for cities. Learn more about this important thought leader and follow a curated list below of key acheivements from Mayor Paes and his home city of Rio.
C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes gave the keynote address at the Sustainable Innovation Forum at COP22 in Marrakech, where he highlighted the importance of mayors and cities in tackling climate change. Read more from his speech.
NASA and Mayor Eduardo Paes signed an agreement for cooperation on hazard monitoring and disaster response to advance mutual scientific interest and science applications. NASA’s Earth Science Division is partnering with Rio de Janeiro's Operations Center to support innovative and ongoing efforts to better understand, anticipate, and monitor natural hazards, including drought, flooding, and landslides, in and around Rio de Janeiro.
Photo courtesy of Rio Operations Center.
Rio recently launched its new, city-wide Resilience Strategy, developed over the past two years by city officials and more than 800 representatives from the private sector, academia and civil society.
The city's vision for a more resilient Rio is based on a better relationship between the city and its water, infrastructure, and most importantly, its citizens.
Learn more about the new strategy, including its six foundational goals.
On 20 September, C40 announced thirty five finalists for the next C40 Cities Awards. Learn more.
Built in Porto Maravilha, the Museum of Tomorrow opens to the public on 19 January. A cultural anchor for the revitalizing project in the Port Area, the museum is the most expressive symbol of the renewal that the 5 million sq. meters area is going through. The space analyses the past, showcases present trends, and explores possible scenarios for the next 50 years through the lens of sustainability and camaraderie.
Mayor Eduardo Paes and the world's leading mayors are urging national leaders to reach an ambitious, universal climate agreement in Paris. Over 25 C40 mayors have signed the Earth Statement, an appeal to national political leaders to commit to eight essential elements of climate action at COP21. The Earth Statement is written by leading scientists and economists who together form the Earth League.
At COP21, C40 Cities, Germany and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) announced a new finance facility that aims to unlock up to US$1 billion worth of sustainable infrastructure in cities across low and middle-income countries by 2020.
“The C40 Cities Finance Facility represents a massive opportunity for cities, particularly those in the Global South,” said Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro and C40 Chair. “The project represents a significant step forward in delivering one of my strategic aims as C40 Chair, and will allow cities to leverage significant public and private financing for green infrastructure projects, enabling cities to accelerate their ambitious emissions reductions.”
"Through Polisdigitocracy – the use of open data, social media and digital technology to drive citizen engagement – we must listen, renew legitimacy and turn formal consultation into constant collaboration. Polisdigitocracy has incredible potential to help our cities engage and excite citizens to achieve our common goals." Mayor Eduardo Paes.
Read the new report, "Polisdigitocracy: Digital Technology, Citizen Engagement and Climate Action"
C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes announced his city’s full compliance with the Compact of Mayors, making it the first city in the world to reach the Compact compliance milestone.
Mayor Paes also issued a call for peer Brazilian cities -- and all world cities alike -- to join onto the compact.
“We can no longer postpone actions against the consequences of climate change, which we already are feeling,” says Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janeiro...Rio, like other cities in the global south, has experienced a range of recent extreme weather events, including avalanches due to sudden violent rains and a continuing drought that is stressing water supplies across Brazil.
"People live in cities, not states or nations, so they have to be taken into consideration in the agreements. As mayors, we are closer to people than heads of state. Around the world, mayors have taken the lead and shown the actions through networks like C40." - Mayor Paes, Chair of C40
As C40 Chair, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes is working on behalf of all C40 Mayors to carve a new role for city leaders on the global stage. Above, Mayor Paes meets with China's Premier Li Keqiang to discuss the advancement of climate action in Chinese cities.