ICLEI World Congress

The ICLEI World Congress was held in the City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a long-term Member of ICLEI. It aimed to address the pressing challenges facing local governments and urban areas in this unpredictable era of change. The Congress brought together our Members, partners, global strategists and experts, academics and NGOs to learn from inspirational speakers and real-life city cases about cutting-edge integrated solutions to the challenges we face.

“This World Congress was the largest ever – testimony to the critical and growing importance of local governments on the road to sustainability; but also testimony to the dedication, leadership and innovation shown by each and every participant that attended! This year we welcomed 1664 participants from over 70 countries. There were 259 speakers and facilitators, in 37 parallel sessions and special meetings, and 8 plenaries. The 2012 World Congress marks another milestone in the development of ICLEI as a global association and movement, and of its strategies, programs and performance.” Monika Zimmermann, Director, Capacity Center, ICLEI World Secretariat.

Closely linked to the UN Rio+20 conference, the World Congress demonstrated collective achievements on the road towards urban sustainability, showcasing the many long-term actions and results triggered over the past 20 years by Local Agenda 21.

You can view some presentation material used by ICLEI here.

View the ICLEI World Congress Gallery here.

An impressive list of Mayors from ICLEI Member cities in Africa participated in the event and presented messages to Rio+20.

Parks Tau, Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, South Africa, sends a message towards Rio+20 at ICLEI's World Congress 2012 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and speaks about the nexus between sustainable energy and poverty eradication.





Key outcomes and decisions of the World Congress

  • We sent a strong message to the UN conference urging for the stronger role of local governments in the global discussions. See the message to Rio here.
  • Newly elected Global Executive Committee to govern ICLEI
  • Leading eco-cities discuss the formation of an ICLEI Eco-cities network. For more information contact secretary.general (at) iclei.org
  • Discussions around formation of a new ICLEI program on health and happiness
  • New signatories to the Mexico City Pact and Durban Adaptation Charter
  • Launch of URBIS network, fostering knowledge exchange through URBIS Dialogues to transcend the science-policy interface and to contribute to the achievement of the CBD Aichi Targets
  • Mayor Park of Seoul, Republic of Korea, elected to be new chair of the World Mayors Council, starting his post later in the year
  • The ICLEI-UNEP Sustainable events guide launched
  • UNEP-ICLEI GEO+5
  • Announcement of the Suwon EcoMobility Festival
  • Attendance of 4 of ICLEI’s FutureCityLeaders, raising the voice of youth speaking in high-level plenaries. See the FutureCityLeaders website for more information.


"Cities are on the frontline of the issues that threat humanity and they will be key to the future. You are directly in contact with the aspirations and challenges of citizens – use this to press for the radical action we need.” Martin Lees, Former Secretary General of the Club of Rome during the opening plenary of the ICLEI World Congress.


ICLEI World Congress side event:

Urban Nature: 13-14 June 2012, led by ICLEICities Biodiversity Centre, hosted by ICLEI African Secretariat

Ecosystem Services, food security, urban nature and biodiversity – how do we make it happen?

The 3rd Urban Nature Forum, held immediately prior to the ICLEI World Congress, provided an innovative science-policy-implementation interface on urban biodiversity and ecosystem management.

The event brought together a unique mixture of mayors, local level councilors, FutureCityLeaders, policy-makers, scientists, town planners, conservationists and other stakeholders from 22 countries and 39 cities around the world! 

Highlights:
• Over 30 organizations and local governments joined the newly launched Urban Biosphere (URBIS) Initiative - an open network fostering knowledge exchange through URBIS Dialogues to transcend the science-policy interface and to contribute to the achievement of the CBD Aichi Targets.

• Announcement by the Commissioner of Hyderabad in India Babu M.T. Krishna, whose city will play host to the next CBD Conference of the Parties, that a City and Subnational Biodiversity Summit will also take place in parallel to the COP from 15-16 October 2012.