For this week’s Awards spotlight, we’re focusing on the #Cities4ZeroWaste finalists that are transitioning our cities away from the landfil, and toward a greener way of processing (even repurposing!) urban waste.

Nuestras ciudades están en el frente de la crisis del cambio climático. La subida del nivel del mar amenaza a millones de ciudadanos con inundaciones y, a su vez, los inviernos más fríos y los veranos más calurosos afectan especialmente a las zonas más vulnerables de nuestras ciudades. Las emisiones nocivas de los vehículos que circulan por el centro de nuestras ciudades contaminan el aire que respiran nuestros hijos. 

Nos villes sont en première ligne de la crise du changement climatique. L’élévation du niveau de la mer menace des millions de personnes avec des inondations, pendant que des hivers plus froids et des étés plus chauds accablent les plus vulnérables de nos villes. Les émissions nocives des véhicules qui roulent dans nos centres urbains polluent l’air que nos enfants respirent.

Our cities are on the frontline of the climate change crisis. Rising sea levels threaten millions of citizens with flooding, while colder winters and hotter summers take their toll on the most vulnerable in our cities. The noxious emissions from vehicles passing through our city centres pollute the air that our children breathe. 

Today, C40 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.

Today, C40 announced that the Steering Committee has voted unanimously to extend current chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes’ tenure by one year, through 2016.

The C40 Clean Bus Declaration of Intent was officially announced during the C40 Latin American Mayors Forum in Buenos Aires in March 2015. The Declaration is an unprecedented action by cities; not only does it document the growing interest in adopting clean bus technologies, it also provides data that illustrates the global market potential for manufacturers. The ultimate goal is to incentivize and help manufacturers and other stakeholders, such as multilateral banks, develop strategies to make these technologies more affordable for cities. The hope is that the Declaration will be a significant step in this direction.

Latin American cities have enormous potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions – C40 research indicates that together they could cut emissions by 2,500 MtCO₂ by 2030, or the equivalent of taking 526 million cars off the road. Fortunately, many Latin American cities are already taking bold climate action, creating and implementing sustainable solutions to enhance the quality of life of urban citizens across the continent. We are proud to present some of the region’s most notable accomplishments here.

The C40 News Team is pleased to bring you photos from last month's C40 Latin American Mayors Forum in Buenos Aires.

Today C40 held its first-ever Latin American Mayors Forum, hosted by Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri and attended by more than 15 mayors and vice-mayors from the region. During the Forum, it was announced that 20 Latin American mayors have joined the Compact of Mayors, and 20 global C40 cities have committed to pursuing clean buses. These two major declarations signify the bold actions cities around the world are taking in the global fight against climate change.

We are gearing up for the first-ever C40 Latin American Mayors Forum, hosted by C40 and the City of Buenos Aires on Friday, March 27. The event will bring together more than 15 mayors and representatives from more than 20 Latin American cities to demonstrate bold leadership in the global fight against climate change. Authorities from financial organisations, policy-makers and influential thinkers will also be in attendance.

The C40 Latin American Mayors Forum in Buenos Aires on 27 March 2015, will be a critical opportunity for city leaders to address one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century: how rapidly growing urban areas can be sustainable and liveable for their citizens, and inspirational to the world on climate action. The forum will be a key precursor to the international climate negotiations culminating in Paris in December 2015, and it will offer cities in the region an open platform to discuss challenges, share experiences and jointly plan for a more sustainable future.

Gunjan Parik, Head of C40’s Transportation Initiative, spoke with city representatives Lisa Seftel and Jeff Ngcobo (Johannesburg) and Juanjo Mendez and Manuela Lopez Menendez (Buenos Aires) to find out more about their cities’ motivation and vision for leading the network. 

At the C40 Mayors Summit in Johannesburg, the C40 News Team spoke with Juan Carlos Villalonga who is President of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Ministry of Environment & Public Space in Buenos Aires.

The people have spoken and Buenos Aires has won the first ever “Citizen’s Choice Award” – a digital media campaign that asked the public to vote for their favorite project nominated in the 2013 C40 & Siemens City Climate Leadership Awards.

Today, “The Crystal Sustainability Series” continues with contributions from Guillermo Dietrich – Head of Transport in Buenos Aires - and Stian Berger Røsland – Governing Mayor of Oslo.

As a C40 Mayor deeply committed to addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, I have been following with great interest the latest round of climate negotiations which concluded in Warsaw some weeks ago. The summit closed with a compromise deal establishing a timeline for discussions, and for governments to set out their targets on curbing greenhouse gas emissions from 2020. Aside from the modest achievements obtained, it has become clear that a new international treaty limiting greenhouse gas emissions will not be signed in the immediate future. The aim remains to reach an agreement on a post-Kyoto treaty by late 2015, thereby postponing vital decisions and collective action at a time when the effects of climate change are more evident than ever before.

Editor's Note: This post has also been translated into Spanish. These are exciting times in Buenos Aires for public transit. With two major Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors currently under construction, and one already complete, this C40 city is taking sustainable public transport to the next level.

Park(ing) Day is celebrated around the globe in September, when the Southern Hemisphere receives the spring season. It is a truly social blossoming that reaches out to people and cities everywhere. It aims to heighten the value of public space, which should be created for and used by people instead of cars.

C40 Cities San Francisco and Buenos Aires were among the four finalists of the 2012 Sustainable Transport Award, granted each year by a committee that includes the most respected organizations working internationally on this issue.

Buenos Aires, a C40 city, announced that a bus rapid transit (BRT) system -- the first in Argentina -- went into operation today. BRT systems are networks of dedicated fast-lanes and stations for high-capacity buses, which can provide a clean and affordable alternative to cars and taxis.

Chief of Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, on a "Better on Bike" bicycle C40 Cities are leading the way on establishing urban cycling infrastructure and programs. Indeed, when it comes to climate initiatives in the transport sector, this is where Cities are taking the most action.