C40 cities Wuhan and Shenzhen will become the first in China to develop comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions inventories using the international gold standard, the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC), after accepting C40’s recently launched Technical Assistance Programme support. This process, made possible with funding from the British philanthropy Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), is a crucial step towards understanding and reducing a city’s emissions.
The announcement was made at the Second China-U.S. Climate-Smart / Low-Carbon Cities Summit in Beijing, where mayors of Chinese and American cities, including Boston, Wuhan and Shenzhen have come together to share ideas and best practices on tackling climate change. Both the United States and China signed the Paris Agreement on April 22nd, and have committed to take their respective domestic steps in order to join the agreement as early as possible in 2016. Cities in each country will play a key role in ensuring the aims of the agreement are put into action in the crucial years ahead.
“Shenzhen and Wuhan are pioneers amongst Chinese cities in committing to produce robust and accurate inventories of their emissions,” said C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes. “Their commitment to act on climate change will inspire others across China and beyond, and help secure a climate safe world for all.”
C40’s Technical Assistance Programme is currently available to 30 C40 member cities across Africa, Latin America and Asia. The programme aims to assist cities in compiling a GHG emissions inventory, establish targets for emissions reduction and develop robust climate change action plans. By taking action in three areas – building energy, transport and planning – these 30 cities, including Wuhan and Shenzhen, have the potential to decrease global GHG cumulative emissions by around 4.8 GtCO2e by 2030.
C40’s support is tailored to the needs of Wuhan and Shenzhen, commencing work in June 2016. Throughout the next two years, C40, in partnership with the World Resources Institute, will provide Wuhan and Shenzhen with training, workshops, tools, webinars and on-going support from expert city climate planners. This support will help the cities build the knowledge, skills and capacity needed to support the global effort to tackle climate change.
Read the press release here.