The Importance of City Action in Combating Climate Change During COP21 in Paris

Originally posted on mikebloomberg.com

Mike Bloomberg traveled to Paris during the first week of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in his role as UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. During his 5-day trip he hosted and spoke at several events and made numerous announcements significant to his UN Envoy role.

On Friday December 4th, Bloomberg and Paris Mayor AnneHidalgo convened more than 440 mayors at Paris City Hall for the Climate Summit for Local Leaders – the largest ever global gathering of mayors confronting the effects of climate change. The Summit framed city leadership as a key ingredient in an ambitious climate agreement; put Mayors squarely at the center of climate diplomacy; and was a platform from which numerous other city and business interventions were leveraged.

In addition to Mayors and other local leaders, a delegation of 10 U.S. Senators hosted a press conference at the Summit to show support for local leaders. “I’m here to tell you that the United States’ leadership and its people fully support all the work that has been done here,” said leader of the U.S. Senate delegation, Maryland Senator Ben Cardin.

During remarks at the Summit, Mike announced the aggregate impact of city commitments to the Compact of Mayors – the world’s largest coalition of cities committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tracking their progress – and one of Bloomberg’s main initiatives as UN Special Envoy. Through the aggregate report and accompanying video, Bloomberg showed that Compact-committed cities can deliver half of the global urban potential greenhouse gas emissions reductions available by 2020.

The Summit concluded with the presentation of the ParisDeclaration, a commitment by the more than 500 cities present at the Summit to deliver up to 3.7 gigatons of urban greenhouse gas emissions reductions annually by 2030 – equivalent to more than the annual emissions of the US and EU at today’s levels.

At Le Bourget, the center for the negotiations, Bloomberg announced a partnership between the Compact of Mayors and the Covenant of Mayors in a press conference with European Commissioner Moscovici. Bloomberg was also appointed to lead a new global Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and participated in an on-stage conversation with the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.

As COP21 came to a close with the historic global agreement, Bloomberg reiterated his support of the success in Paris and that future success will be contingent upon city action:

“This groundbreaking agreement on climate action – together with the commitments made by cities and businesses around the world – sets the world on a new and hopeful pathway,” Bloomberg said. “The agreement not only unites all nations in the battle against climate change, it also sends a clear signal to markets about the direction of government policy, which will help spur greater private sector investment in low-carbon technology. Like any agreement, it's not perfect, but it also includes a built-in remedy that many city leaders strongly supported: regular re-evaluations of national goals and transparent reporting of progress, to ensure that we are on track to hand a safer, healthier, and more prosperous world to our children.”