ICLEI e-News | issue 13, September 2008

A word from the Secretary General

Dear Reader,

On September 23 we sadly celebrate “Overshoot Day” for the year 2008, according to data from Global Footprint Network (GFN). In their words: “Just like any company, nature has a budget – it can only produce so many resources and absorb so much waste each year. The problem is, our demand on nature’s services is exceeding what it can provide. Since the 1980s, humanity has been in ecological overshoot, using resources faster than they can be regenerated and putting carbon into the air faster than it can be reabsorbed.”

Since 1990, ICLEI has been motivating local governments to work with their communities on Local Agenda 21, an action plan towards local sustainability. The Ecological Footprint is an excellent tool to measure and become aware a community’s demand on global resources. We are indeed proud to be an official partner to the GFN.

Cooperation is essential for ICLEI, both among its Members and other organisations. In this issue of e-News local governments can, for example, learn how to join phase 2 of ‘Local Action for Biodiversity’ or attend the ‘Local Governments Climate Sessions’ at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland this December.

I invite you to read below about how the World Wildlife Fund India (WWF) is partnering with ICLEI’s South Asia Secretariat. Together, these two organizations will jointly explore and undertake projects on urbanization and sustainability in the transition to a low carbon economy. The entire organization looks with interest to the results of this partnership.

I am on my way to the City of Tianjin (China) for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Slim City Meeting (26 September) and New Champions meeting (27 and 28 September). The SlimCity (meaning ‘resource-efficient city’) initiative is the response by WEF to the request by business leaders to engage with city leaders. In Tianjin, SlimCity will orchestrate a series of urban sessions. Apart from cities, this meeting will bring together the emerging multinational companies that have the potential to reshape the global economic landscape. I will explore how ICLEI members – a most thriving group of innovators - can most effectively engage with companies as solution providers.

Best wishes,

Konrad Otto-Zimmermann