JOHANNESBURG – The fifth biennial C40 will be held for the first time the in Africa and only three other African cities are part of C40 namely Cairo, Lagos and Addis Abba.
The Summit is delivered by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) Cities Program, and will be co-hosted by the Executive Mayor of City of Johannesburg Councillor Mpho Parks Tau and 108th Mayor of New York City and Chair of C40, Michael Bloomberg.
The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world, committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable global climate-related actions that generate measurable reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate risks.
The theme of the 2014 C40 Cities Mayors Summit is ‘Towards resilient and liveable megacities – demonstrating action, impact and opportunity’.
Mayors and senior city officials from over 63 leading cities around the world, will come together to discuss the climate change challenges facing their cities, and share insights based on the actions they’ve taken to reduce GHG emissions.
Around 700 urban and climate change leaders will join them in a series of roundtable discussions and working sessions to focus on the themes of resilient and liveable megacities, GHG measurement and adaptation, and impact and opportunity.
While cities only occupy two percent of the Earth’s landmass, they contain over 50 per cent of the world’s population, use two-thirds of its energy and generate over 70 per cent of global CO2 emissions. With 90 per cent of the world’s urban areas situated on coastlines, cities are at high risk from some of the climate change impacts, such as rising sea levels and powerful coastal storms.
Hosting the event will be a historic moment for Johannesburg, South Africa, and the African continent which is clear recognition of the growing role that South Africa plays in finding solutions to the most pressing issues facing the globe.
During the Summit, Joburg will demonstrate its current actions towards climate resilience with great environmental sustainability impacts through initiatives including:
- Sustainable Communities: Schools Climate Proofing
- Green Transportation: Rea Vaya – BRT
- Integrated Waste Management: Separation at Source
- Water Management: Lanseria Reservoir – Johannesburg Water SOC’s project of constructing a new 20ML water reservoir and a 1.2ML water tower in Lanseria with a value of R39.5 Million
Joburg is a world-class events destination and a progressive entity with strong and competent leadership who is passionate about actualising environmental sustainability across all its regions.
