Brussels, 22/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The world's two primary city-led climate change and sustainable energy shift initiatives, the EU Covenant of Mayors and the Compact of Mayors, announced the formation, in Brussels on Wednesday 22 June, of a vast international coalition to speed up implementation of measures to combat climate change at local level across the world: the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.
This global coalition will build on the commitments of more than 7,100 cities from 119 countries and six continents, representing more than 600 million inhabitants, over 8% of the world's population within the framework of the Convention of Mayors, launched by the EU in 2008, the Compact of Mayors, launched by the United Nations in 2014, and global city networks (C40, ICLEI and UCLG).
By aligning city-led efforts, the Global Covenant of Mayors of Mayors for Climate & Energy, to be co-chaired by the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael R. Bloomberg, will seek to improve collaboration between cities across the world, bridging gaps and building connections, as well as increasing funding to support and empower city action on sustainable energy and climate change.
This merger will harness the convening and investment powers of the European Union and Bloomberg's foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, as well as the critical global city network partners of each initiative, including C40, ICLEI, UCLG from the Compact of Mayors and Eurocities, Energy Cities and Climate Alliance from the Convention of Mayors - creating a stronger presence and visibility of local authorities in the on-going work of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The new initiative will provide a common platform that brings together relevant data on cities' energy and climate measures (hitherto gathered by the platforms of each of the initiatives) that will allow cities' achievements to be compared with those of other cities and towns all around the world, and for them to be made publicly available through a new Global Covenant of Mayors website, to be launched by January 2017.
Additionally, combining the two initiatives will streamline and consolidate efforts to increase and capture the collective impact of city action and build even greater momentum for locally-led climate action, the European Commission says.
A single coalition will also simplify city participation, freeing cities to focus on a single commitment with both local relevance and global impact. It will provide greater clarity for cities and ensure more consistent and comparable data, giving investors the ability to see that the actions cities have been taking are having lasting, verifiable, and most importantly, investable impact, the Commission states. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)