C40 Cities Mayors Summit underway

Mayors and top officials from more than 44 cities are currently discussing climate change at the fifth biennial C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Mayors Summit.

The group is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world, which wants to implement sustainable global climate-related actions that generate measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks.

With the theme Towards Resilient and Liveable Megacities, the summit is being co-hosted by the executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), Councillor Mpho Parks Tau, C40 chair and Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes, and the mayor of New York City and president of the C40 board, Michael Bloomberg.

“With 70 per cent of the world’s population predicted to live in urban areas by 2050, we as cities are working to the tightest of deadlines in order to preserve all our futures. Cities around the world are taking action against climate change, and C40 cities are leading the way. As a result, as our research shows, we are having a real and quantifiable impact on global greenhouse gas emissions,” said president Bloomberg.

Clr Tau said this summit is a privilege for the CoJ, South Africa and the African continent. “As mayors of big cities, we have a responsibility to provide leadership and to share our experiences, best practice and capacity for innovation with the rest of the globe. We take action on this front because of our shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In the end, we are measured not by how much we undertake, but by what we finally accomplish,” he said.

A landmark report, Climate Action in Megacities Volume 2.0 (CAM 2.0), will be released during the summit.

This report quantifies the measurable actions taken by the world’s megacities and how they are leading the way to reduce carbon emissions and climate risks.