CUMBRE CLIMATICA MUNDIAL DE ALCALDES (CCLIMA)

Mexico City, 21 November 2010

Report by David Cadman, ICLEI President and Gino Van Begin, Deputy Secretary General

On 21 November 2010, ICLEI member Mexico City hosted the World Mayors Summit on Climate just a week before nations meet in Cancun, Mexico at COP16, the UN Conference on Climate following Copenhagen in 2009.

An impressive number of mayors lined up to sign the Mexico City Pact as yet another demonstration of local government commitment to climate action and performance.

ICLEI President, David Cadman said “with the initiative that Mayor Ebrard took to design the Mexico City Pact, cities around the world demonstrate their climate commitments and as a new element of commitment, to also report on city performance. It is great to see that now there is complement to regional initiatives in Europe with the Covenant of Mayors and in the US with the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. There is now an instrument for cities of all the regions of the world to unite their voice.”

As a co-organiser of the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City, ICLEI reiterates that cities and local governments are essential partners to nations to address global environmental problems. Gino Van Begin, ICLEI Regional Director for Europe says, “the same nations who recognized the importance of local action in another 1992 UN Convention on Biodiversity three weeks ago, in Nagoya, Japan with the adoption of the Plan of Action on Sub-national Governments, Cities and other Local Authorities and Biodiversity (2011-2020) should now do the same in the Climate COP in Cancún starting in one week”.

Mayors gathering here in Mexico City have given the mandate to Mayor Ebrard to speak on their behalf in Cancún and to present the outcomes of this Summit to Nations.

The Global Cities Covenant on Climate – the Mexico City Pact - at its launch on 21 November, has been signed by 138 cities, amongst which are Bogotá, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Paris, Istanbul, Barcelona, Nantes, Kyoto and Nagoya.

A key component of the Mexico City Pact is the carbonn cities climate registry – cCCR. This Registry will support the global credibility of local climate action by allowing transparency, accountability and comparability of climate actions, performance and commitments. Mayor of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard says “the cCCR will be the official reporting mechanism and hub for cities to report on their climate actions. The reporting mechanism of the cCCR will increase global recognition and encourage access to global resources for local players.” Among the Mexico City Pact signatories, five cities of five continents have already provided climate data in the registry, Calgary, Copenhagen, Cape Town, Mexico City and Nagpur.

UNFCCC  Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, explicitly supported the cities work on the implementation of local climate action on mitigation and adaptation and the carbonn cities climate registry (cCCR). You can read the speking notes of the UNFCCC Executive Secretary intervention here.

More information on the Summit.

Visit the photo gallery of the event.

Here, you will find a collection of articles related to the WMSC.