Mayors from around the world signed an agreement to address climate change this week at the World Mayors Summit on Climate, hosted by the Government of Mexico City.
During the summit, representatives from 135 global cities signed the Mexico City Pact, which establishes a monitoring and verification mechanism for cities to address climate change. The Mexico City Pact will be presented to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) when it meets later this month in Cancun, Mexico.
"With more than half the world’s population today living in cities for the first time in human history, mayors and urban leaders are on the frontline of the planet’s fight against a changing climate. Today, the cities meeting here are taking action to reduce harmful greenhouse emissions through their commitment to the Mexico City Pact," said Marcelo Ebrard, Mayor of the Mexico City and chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change.
In partnership with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, and the World Mayors Council on Climate Change (WMCCC), the Government of Mexico City organized the summit to provide a forum for the signing of an agreement that commits cities to action and urges national governments to advance a binding global treaty.
"Cities have great capacities to address climate change, even in the absence of a binding global treaty among nations, which is why we are here today. We are demonstrating the leadership of mayors and cities around the world to take action," said Martha Delgado, Mexico City’s secretary of the environment and ICLEI vice president.
The Mexico City Pact calls for cities to develop and implement climate action plans that promote local laws and initiatives to reduce GHG reductions. To establish and follow up on cities’ commitments, the signers will establish their climate actions in the Carbon Cities Climate Registry (CCCR) at the Bonn Centre for Local Climate Action and Reporting (carbonn).
"Funding is a critical component to ensure that cities around the world have the financial resources to implement their climate action plans. Mayors believe that if financial resources become available through transfers from developed to developing countries, a significant portion of these monies should be passed through to cities and local governments to implement local climate programs," Ebrard said.
Mexico City is currently implementing a Green Plan designed to reduce GHG emissions by 7 million metric tons between 2008 and 2012 through a comprehensive program of new investments in public transportation, conservation of public lands, reductions in air pollution, improvements in water, solid waste and sanitation infrastructure, and encouraging companies and citizens to adopt climate-friendly practices.
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Author an environmental activist Bill McKibben published on NPR a foreign policy preview for the Cancun talks:
"I suspect it will be mostly holding pattern and very little landing in Mexico this December. The fundamental problem that has always dogged these talks–a rich north that won’t give up its fossil-fuel addiction, a poor south that can’t give up its hope of fossil-fueled development–has, if anything, gotten worse, mostly because the north has decided to think of itself as poor, too or at least not able to devote resources to changing our climate course."
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