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World's mayors hold climate change summit
By James Hossack
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 05 15 07Mayors and business leaders from more than 40 of the world's biggest cities were gathering in New York Monday for a summit devoted to combating climate change and cleaning up the environment.
Leaders from Seoul to Sydney and Mumbai to Mexico City are expected at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, billed as helping to reduce cities' greenhouse gas emissions and develop more energy-efficient infrastructure.
The summit, which opens with a reception late Monday and runs through Thursday, is expected to include several joint initiatives that harness the cities' combined purchasing power.
The event is being organized in conjunction with the Clinton Climate Initiative, part of the foundation set up by former US president Bill Clinton, who is due to address the summit on Wednesday.
The first large cities summit was held in London in 2005 and brought together environmental officials from around 20 cities to exchange ideas and set up a network of like-minded cities.
This year's meeting for the first time brings in business leaders.
The summit will stress the financial benefits of addressing climate change, said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a non-governmental business leadership group organizing the meeting.
"The feeling was it was important for this summit to focus on the potential economic benefits of cities taking action to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change," she said.
Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern last year warned that the fallout of climate change could be on the scale of the two world wars and the Great Depression of the 1930s unless urgent action was taken.
Wylde said that by bringing together city authorities, companies with technological solutions and banks to finance new initiatives, the summit offered far more than just being a talking shop.
"You've had lots of people that are abstractly talking about global warming and advocating policy change, but these are people who actually write checks," she said.
"It's no longer a matter just of rhetoric. Mayors are 'roll up your sleeves' guys that really have to run a city and do things," she added.
Other topics up for discussion include beating traffic congestion, making water systems more efficient, adopting renewable energy sources, increasing recycling levels, reducing waste and improving mass transit.
Cities are responsible for around three-quarters of the world's energy consumption and are considered critical to reducing carbon emissions. By acting together, cities could make a real change to global warming, Wylde said.
"If one city by itself implements a policy to reduce its carbon emissions, I don't think it's going to convince anyone that that's going to change the world," she said.
"But if the larger cities across five continents commit to do something, that could change the world, it could have a real impact on the case of climate change," she said, particularly welcoming the role of developing countries.
"If New York does something great and Mumbai and Beijing and Shanghai decide to ignore the issue, New York's efforts to slow climate change are not going to be impactful," she said.
"It's a little for harder for cities in emerging economies to take this position, but the fact that they're coming and committing to working together, I think is a big deal," she added.
Among the cities attending the summit are Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, Delhi, Dhaka, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Lagos, Melbourne, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.
AFP 14 1955 GMT 05 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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