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.
Delivering on the Paris Agreement objectives requires fundamental and systemic changes, which won’t come about – and certainly not swiftly enough – unless there is a groundswell of political support demanding action. Executive Director Mark Watts examines how the landscape for changed 100 days after the historic accord. Read more.
Mayors are delivering important, innovative policies and programmes that reduce emissions and improve sustainability. The C40 Cities Awards were created to recognize those successes, catalyze ambition, and share lessons with cities around the world.
C40 networks facilitate dialogue, cooperation, and information exchange amongst city officials. The result is that cities' climate actions to reduce GHGs and climate risks are bolder, more impactful, and implemented faster with less resources than if they were to go it alone. No other organisation connects city staff across 50+ countries, 20 time zones and 26 languages to accelerate local action with major global impact.
And now, C40 cities have rallied around their shared themes to produce new Good Practice Guides, which showcasing 100 real world examples of projects and approaches that have already proved successful in our member cities.
COP21 in Paris was historic, and C40 was proud to help cities emerged as vital nonstate actors in the process. If the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need our cities to continue to lead, to set aggressive emission reduction targets, exceed them, and share lessons learned along the way.
Our research is changing the way people think of cities.
Taken as a set, Climate Action in Megacities (CAM 3.0) and Potential for Climate Action analyse how the world’s leading mayors have taken on the urgent challenge of climate change – and how they can do even more. Since the last major COP in Copenhagen, C40 cities have taken 10,000 climate actions and committed to reduce their CO2 emissions by 3 Gt CO2 by 2030, equivalent to the annual carbon output of India. Yet, there are still 27,000 additional measures that cities could implement over the coming years.
"The evidence is clear that [C40's] networking strategy is working," says C40 Board President and UN Special Envoy for Cities & Climate Change Michael R. Bloomberg in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, where he writes about city climate action as a catalyst for public health and economic growth.
As C40 marks its ten-year anniversary, we are pleased to share a new “10 Years of Results” booklet. We encourage you to read and share these highlights on what C40 has accomplished, as well as our vision for a bright, urban future.
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C40
The World is Watching Cities
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 important cause.
As the world moves forward from Paris, we're showcasing stories that help explain why cities are so vitally important for implementing on the goals set forth in that historic accord.
In an editorial for Time Magazine, two American Mayors make the case for the importance of cities in the fight against climate change: "Since urban areas—where 80% of Americans live and the majority of economic activity takes place—must shoulder a disproportionate burden of adapting to climate change, the cost of keeping our citizens safe and our infrastructure in a state of good repair grows with each passing day." Read more.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will soon decide on its work programme for the next reporting cycle, and is considering a special report on cities and climate change. C40 and its Mayors are urging the IPCC to recognise the role of cities in the global response to climate change. Learn why – and how – you can act to help spur on this important decision.
Read C40 Executive Director Mark Watt's piece explaining why, as an early member of the C40 network, Melbourne has been a tireless champion of the climate change agenda in Australia and across the region. Certified as carbon neutral in 2013 and with an ambitious goal to reach zero net emissions by 2020, Melbourne’s commitment matches the most ambitious cities in Europe and North America. Read more.
More than 400 city commitments made since the Compact's launch would realize over 50% of the 2020 global potential for urban GHG emissions reductions. Compact commitments could close 25% of the “gap” between national pledges for emissions reductions made in advance of this year’s COP21 summit, and those necessary to keep global warming below 2°C.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs recently argued that a Mayor would be the ideal choice to succeed Christiana Figueres as head of the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat, noting: "Sustaining the momentum generated in Paris may require a shift in emphasis—a move from negotiation to implementation—and a new kind of leadership."
"Cities, with their vulnerability to and responsibility for climate change, with their sensitivity to needs for both mitigation and adaptation, have become the source of wherewithal and innovation necessary to address global warming. Maybe they should also be the source for our next head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat."
Congratulations to the 10 winning cities: Vancouver (Carbon Measurement & Planning); Rotterdam (Adaptation Planning & Assessment); New York (Building Energy Efficiency); Washington, DC (Green Energy); Johannesburg (Finance & Economic Development); Wuhan (Solid Waste); Cape Town (Adaptation Implementation); Boston (Smart Cities & Smart Community Engagement); Stockholm (Sustainable Communities); and Nanjing (Transportation).
C40 and Arup have released the third installment of their groundbreaking research. Cataloging 10,000 actions from the world's leading cities, the new report demonstrates the ability of mayors to share knowledge across geographic, political and economic boundaries: 30 percent of climate action measured was a result of city-to-city collaboration. It also shows that collaboration is accelerating the rate at which cities are acting – more than half (51 percent) of climate action is happening today at a city-wide scale, up from just 15 percent in 2011.
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.
C40 debuted its first ad for #CitiesAreKey, a global pro bono advertising campaign designed to underscore the leadership role that mayors and urban citizens are playing to tackle climate change on the road to the international climate talks in Paris, and beyond.
The campaign kicked off with an animated video broadcast on a digital billboard in London’s Piccadilly Circus and recently expanded to New York's Times Square.
What's Next on the Road from Paris?
COP21 was a huge success, and city leaders left Paris with a renewed sense of purpose – but now the real work begins.
The Paris Agreement can only be brought to life with full support from all those involved, including national, regional and local leaders. The 1.5°C target means that cities and city leaders are more crucial than ever to the global fight against climate change; this goal cannot be achieved without effective climate action in cities.
Although the Paris Agreement comes into force in 2020, C40’s mayors are acting now, and are helping to ensure that the world is better able to transition to a low-carbon development pathway, avoid carbon lock in, and create smart and sustainable cities.
As part of the UNFCCC’s #ParisAgreement #Means4Me social media campaign, C40’s Executive Director Mark Watts explains above what the historic agreement means to cities, mayors, and organizations like C40 that support them.
From the Office of the Chair
C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes is a global ambassador for cities. Learn more about this important thought leader and check back over the next few weeks as Mayor Paes presents the most important stories impacting mayors today, from his home city and the rest of C40's 80+ Cities on the #RoadToParis.
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.
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.
C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes recently opened the bike lane at Avenida Niemeyer to the public. The bike lane is 3.9 kilometers long and connects the neighborhoods of Leblon to São Conrado in the South Zone of the city. Cyclists are treated to a breathtaking view of the ocean along the way. By the end of 2016, it will be possible to go from Centro to the beach of Grumari, in the West Zone, using lanes exclusively built for bicycles.
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.
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.
