 | Opening session of the UN climate talks in Bangkok on 3 April 2011 © UN Climate talks/flickr |
Ahead of the UN Bangkok climate talks Melbourne and North Vancouver push Mexico City Pact to 179 signatories
April 05, 2011
The signatories of the Mexico City Pact are now jointly representing 300 million people. While nations continue their negotiations about a climate deal in Bangkok, cities and local governments are showing that they are far ahead in taking action.
On the eve of the next round of UN climate talks in Bangkok, the number of mayors and local authority representatives who have signed the Global Covenant of Mayors on Climate - the Mexico City Pact – has now reached an impressive 179 with Melbourne, Australia and North Vancouver, Canada being amongst the most recent signatories.
The total number of citizens represented by the signatories is 300 million, which is almost equal to the total population of half of the countries currently negotiating at the UN.
Launched at the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City, just before COP16 in Cancun, the Pact is a voluntary initiative of mayors and local authority representatives that consists of 10 action points. By signing the Pact, signatories commit to advance local climate actions, including the reduction of emissions, adaptation to the impacts of climate change and fostering city-to-city cooperation.
www.worldmayorscouncil.org/the-mexico-city-pact
Article.4 of the Mexico City Pact envisages that signatories report their climate commitments, performance and actions through the carbonn Cities Climate Registry (cCCR), as the global response of local governments to the concept of globally measurable, reportable, verifiable (MRV) climate action.
www.citiesclimateregistry.org
ICLEI has been acting as the focal point for the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency at the UNFCCC since 1995. Throughout the UN Bangkok climate talks, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) will deliver the interventions for the LGMA Constituency. For more information about the LGMA agenda at the UN Bangkok climate talks please visit the UCLG website.
Since the beginning of the UN climate negotiations cities and local governments have been advocating for an acknowledgement of their vital role in fighting climate change and in taking effective local actions. At the Cancun talks in 2010, recognition of local governments as "governmental stakeholders" was finally anchored in the negotiation texts.
After the UN climate talks in Bangkok ending on 8 April 2011, national governments will continue their negotiations in Bonn, Germany on 6 June 2011.
The days just before the UN talks in Bonn, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of Mexico City and Mayor Jurgen Nimptsch of Bonn, Chair and Vice-Chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change, will lead the first global stocktaking of the progress achieved through the Mexico City Pact and carbonn Cities Climate Registry during ICLEI’s Resilient Cities 2011 congress.
resilient-cities.iclei.org/bonn2011
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