Check out our highlights from 30 November – 4 December at COP28
Mayors share insights at the Local Climate Action Summit and COP President launches CHAMP
The COP28 President, Dr Al Jaber, and Michael R. Bloomberg, President of the C40 Board and UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, hosted the first-ever Local Climate Action Summit from 1–2 December—an opportunity for city leaders to share their experience of implementing impactful climate policies on the international stage.
Led by C40 Co-Chair Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayors spurred national and international climate ambitions, calling for the speeding up of fossil fuel phaseout, halving emissions by 2030, and unlocking direct investment and the flow of finance to cities for accelerated climate action.
During the summit, C40 was thrilled to see the launch of CHAMP – the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships – by the COP28 President and Michael. R Bloomberg. This pioneering initiative has been endorsed by 64 national governments and will foster collaboration between local, regional and national leaders in updating Nationally Determined Contributions and reducing emissions.
Read Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s address during the UN ‘Integrity Matters’ event.
Inclusive and locally-led climate action on loss and damage receives new funding
During the C40-led event, ‘Loss & Damage: An urban perspective’, C40 and the Scottish Government announced a new partnership, report and funding for cities focused on accelerating locally-led, inclusive climate action that addresses urban loss and damage.
At COP28, First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf announced that C40 would receive £1 million from Scotland’s Climate Justice Fund to focus efforts on tackling loss and damage in marginalised communities in C40 cities.
First Breathe Cities cohort announced, scaling up action on toxic urban air pollution
C40, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Clean Air Fund announced the first cities to benefit from funding, technical support, air quality data, community engagement and capacity building as part of Breathe Cities.
The new cohort—including Accra, Brussels, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Milan, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Sofia—join London and Warsaw as part of the clean air initiative.
Subnational Climate Action Leaders’ Exchange (SCALE) ramps up multi-level collaboration on methane
SCALE marked a successful first year at COP28 with the launch of a major new initiative to cut methane from the waste sector and discussion with subnational leaders on opportunities for further strengthening climate action across sectors at the city, state, and regional level.
SCALE’s new initiative – Lowering Organic Waste Methane (LOW-Methane) – will jumpstart a dramatic scale-up of global action to cut methane emissions from the waste sector. The ambition of LOW-Methane is to cut at least 1 million metric tons of annual waste sector methane reductions well before 2030 with 40 subnational jurisdictions and to unlock over US$10 billion in investment.
New report highlights how to overhaul MDBs and prioritise urban climate finance
A new report from C40, the Global Covenant of Mayors and Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, highlights the need to overhaul multilateral development banks (MDBs) and prioritise urban climate finance.
C40 Co-Chair Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said: “Bridging the city climate financing gap is an urgent prerequisite to achieving the Paris Agreement goals. That’s why the international community and MDBs must prioritise investing in cities and urban resilient infrastructure as a key lever to act simultaneously on climate and development. As the needs of cities are often overshadowed by competing priorities on the global MDB agenda, we hope this report will shine a spotlight on the crucial need for urban finance to tackle the climate crisis at the subnational level.”
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