A Conference focusing exclusively on climate change and local governments will take place on March 17.
 Titled “Cities and Climate Change”, the first of a kind meeting will officially launch UN-HABITAT’s “Cities in Climate Change Initiative” (CCCI) focusing on mitigation and adaption to climate change impacts on human settlements within the framework of urban governance, decentralisation, strengthening local authorities and environmental planning and management.
The main results of the deliberations will be submitted as part of the inputs to the Copenhagen Climate summit in December 2009.
Pilot CCCI partner cities such as Sorsogon in the Philippines, Esmeraldas in Ecuador, Kampala in Uganda and Maputo in Mozambique are invited together with multilateral agencies such as UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, ICLEI Cities Alliance etc. Bilateral agencies like SIDA, Sweden and GTZ, Germany will also take part in the conference.
In excess of 50% of the world’s population now resides in urban centres where more than 75% of all energy is consumed and approximately 80% of all CO2 is emitted. Yet, state-led international climate negotiations have so far only to a limited degree confronted the challenges and opportunities that local government and municipal authorities are facing.
The action and leadership taken by local governments and city authorities to advance climate protection carries the strongest potential for effective and swift reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Conference on “Cities and Climate Change” aims at bringing together northern and southern city authorities, civil society and corporate business to discuss and develop a common understanding on climate change. And likewise, identify opportunities for forging effective partnerships and networks for technology, finance and knowledge transfer. |
