Our Activities

ICLEI USA provided technical advisory services at the request of the Climate Smart citizen task force of Philipstown New York. ICLEI contributed to the development of a baseline estimate for "net" GHG emissions after removals. The object of the analysis was to inform the development of a Climate Action Plan to outline the policies and actions local government, community partners, and individuals could take to measurably reduce emissions and adapt to unavoidable climate change. The task force recommended that the Town adopt the analysis given that it best localizes the global emissions resulting from the community’s actions and unites efforts to promote community health, a growing local economy, environmental stewardship and other sustainability initiatives under the common banner of a collective plan to address climate change. The town set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2040 and explored opportunities to do that with and without the purchase of carbon offsets.

ICLEI USA partnered with Azavea, a beneficial corporation and software developer in Philadelphia and Dr. Missy Stultz, a former ICLEI USA staff member to create TEMPERATE to help local governments with limited resources to develop climate change adaptation plans and align those plans with the reporting requirements of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The Temperate dashboard displays city-specific potential future climate hazards, based on the geographic regions and findings included in the 2014 National Climate Assessment. Each Top Hazard is backed by one of the Climate indicators available in the Azavea Climate API, informed by Dr. Stultz's research. ICLEI USA provides 2-6 hours of Temperate support to its members. ICLEI USA contracts with cities that wish to outsource the Vulnerability Assessment development, as was the case with the Town and Village of New Paltz New York. Over a two-year period, ICLEI USA staff worked with the Town and stakeholders to develop an action plan to address local climate vulnerabilities.

Through GrowSmarter ICLEI worked to develop a comprehensive understanding and guide for the replication of smart and sustainable urban solutions. ICLEI also led the communications work of GrowSmarter and has shared the good examples provided by the project.
ICLEI’s work on the replication of smart solutions concluded with the report ‘ROAD TO REPLICATION – GUIDING CITIES ON SMART URBAN DEVELOPMENT’ for stakeholders interested in replicating different smart measures in the future. It provides insights about the importance of integrating Smart City strategies into the core of sustainable energy and climate action planning processes as well as sustainable urban developments. Some of the key aspects that could facilitate replication further include the definition of diverse and cross-sector governance structures that ensure smart technologies to serve as enablers for sustainable urban transformation. It is also important for cities to evaluate the replication potential of smart measures in their urban context, following systematic approaches and management cycles, which mainstream smart and sustainable action.
Other key aspects identified include amongst others the involvement of stakeholders in early stages of planning, the development of internal capacity building processes, the adoption of innovative ways to initiate projects, and the transparent communication to citizens about the goals and measures implemented.

The six cities involved in the project will go through a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) process. PCP is an innovation procurement tool to stimulate market innovation as it enables the public sector to steer the development of new solutions directly towards its needs. The six cities will define the needs and requirements of the energy and mobility solutions to be developed, and challenge start-ups, SMEs and companies to design innovative solutions applying the use of AI and related enabling digital technologies, such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data applications.

A select group of approximately 15 Australian local governments is being invited to join a Pioneer Group. This group will register on the CWN global website and will then participate in a needs assessment conducted jointly by ICLEI Oceania and Swinburne University. The results will be used to develop a tailored package of resources and activities, targetting the highest needs of Australian local governments. The Pioneer initiative will take approximately 12 months and include several webinars and a national forum at the end of the year to report on the outcomes of COP15. This last step may of course be delayed due to the COVID.

>> See also project description.
ICLEI organizes five strategic workshops for the network members on four thematic vision clusters (future proof, 100% renewable, zero waste, human scale) and on the organization of an EGCA laureate year.
Develops a set of well-structured toolkits, combining print and online resources that inspire cities to embark on or further advance local sustainability transitions.
ICLEI also assesses a potential enlargement of membership of the Network of the European Green Capitals as well as provides recommendations for the inclusion of and/ or increased collaboration with other networks.
ICLEI further promotes the European Green Capital Network and highlights the benefits of sharing the inspiration through the dissemination of the latest information on the project developments and the toolkits to at least 150 other ‘target cities’.

ICLEI KO is connecting this national & local event with global issues and trends. KO helps the co-organizer and hosting city see and know what front-running country and cities are doing at similar events and efforts. SDGs Studio that was introduced in the Global SDGs Festival took place in Bonn in May 2019 was replicated at KFSD. KO’s role is bringing new ideas and innovation from global society to this festival that has been long-lasting since 1999.

The project aims to improve the NDCs, including increasing ambition, as part of the Paris Agreement NDC update process; In addition to assisting in the accelerated implementation of NDCs, providing knowledge and technical training in the country. CAEP will provide support to countries through existing support programs of its institutional and associate members and through a dedicated Technical Assistance Fund that will use funding where existing support is not sufficient to meet the needs identified by countries. The Technical Assistance Fund is a joint financing mechanism with contributions from various development partners that will allocate resources to institutional members and Associates of the Partnership to respond to requests for updating and implementing the NDC.The World Resources Institute, as host of the Fund, will administer the contract, while the Partnership Support Unit is responsible for programmatic implementation.

Mitigating the impacts of climate change in the relevant sectors, with the preparation of a technical study of climate risk and the respective adaptation plan through the MOVE platform; Promote actions and measures to control and reduce GHG emissions by updating the GHG Inventory using the CLIMAS software and the GPC methodology; Establish paths to reach the commitment to neutralize GHG emissions by 2050 through an assessment of the best alternatives for reducing emissions in the sectors of the municipality; Share technology and information with the local technical staff to empower the municipality in implementing the proposed actions; Encourage public and private investments to adopt sustainable practices; Create a database for monitoring and supervising measures and for accelerating more ambitious, collaborative and environmentally correct local climate actions. Expected impacts: to position an ICLEI and C40 member city in accordance with the GCoM through the presentation of a historic series of GHG Inventory, dissemination of the study through the final report of the plan as an opportunity for international visibility

ICLEI is supporting the city of Turku in designing the Circular Turku roadmap with relevant stakeholders. ICLEI is advising on participation mechanisms and providing expert inputs across the priority sectors in the region. Learnings from local circular economy action in Turku are shared on the global stage for replication and knowledge sharing with other local governments.

The project aims to support the integration of climate change and air pollution at the city level through capacity building. It contains four consequential activities:

1) Convene focus group discussions with city policymakers and experts (health, transport, infrastructure) for needs assessment regarding the knowledge and tools cities should obtain in integrating SLCP reductions into policies and practices;
2) Develop a training curriculum drawing from existing materials to support the integration of SLCP reduction into policies and practices for cities in Asia;
3) Work with 3 cities to integrate SLCPs reduction into relevant policies and practices;
4) Gather inputs to report on the CCAC DI indicators and associated data collection questionnaire/initiative reporting template.

Learnings will be well documented and shared in major regional events, such as the Beijing International Forum for Metropolitan Clean Air Actions, the Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change, and the ASEAN High-Level Seminar on Environmentally Sustainable Cities.

ICLEI is in the consortium to provide technical assistance on business modeling and stakeholder engagement. Under the project, ICLEI has recruited a local staff in Ulaanbaatar to carry out workshops and consultation meetings and surveys with households and homeowner associations, wisely utilize resources and knowledge from the TAP program, and structure business models on the basis of the knowledge of local energy politics and financial deadlocks.
Through the project, Ulaanbaatar City Government and the consortium will co-develop a feasible financial solution and a reasonable technical scope to kick-off precast residential retrofitting systems thinking. It is estimated that building retrofits can reduce 49-52% energy loss compared to the business-as-usual scenario and significantly contribute to Mongolia’s INDC target and enhance citizens’ living quality.

ICLEI is in particular involved in Replication-Exploitation and Dissemination-Stakeholder Engagement tasks. In order to identify additional markets, feasibility studies will be performed to replicate the concept in specific contexts such as Emergency and Reconstruction sites. Specific business model to foster the commercialization of the FC gensets will be developed also through the commitment of industrial stakeholders and local authorities, who will interact with the consortium through webinars and workshops. In order to foster project replication, EVERYWH2ERE will involve industrial and public stakeholders alike from early on in the project within two dedicated Interest Groups. ICLEI will be leading the regions and cities interest group to promote project replication, the deployment of gensets and advancing urban hydrogen agendas. The presence of ICLEI, will guarantee a strong interaction with EU local authorities which play a fundamental role for the promotion of these technologies through specific policy and regulatory schemes.

ICLEI will publish policy guide for upscaling the use of hydrogen gensets in European cities.

ICLEI leads EXCESS’ communications and dissemination work package as well as specific replication activities with the aim of raising awareness of the benefits of PEBs, engaging industry and the public sector and roll out rapid replication of PEBs in Europe. The additional role of ICLEI in the project is to assess the proliferation of Plus Energy Buildings across the EU, by means of stock taking, interviews and statistical analyses.

In nearly three decades of work, ICLEI has developed, tested and scaled up methodologies to guide the way towards sustainable urban development at the local level. This rich experience accumulated allows us to apply a common framework for our global projects and initiatives, which currently follows the stages: analysis, action and acceleration, and in each one follows a step-by-step guideline. This track can be applied to a variety of themes – from low emission to nature-based development – and promotes a cyclical path that allows the continuous improvement of the governments in our Network. This year’s “Cities + Sustainable – ICLEI South America Solutions Portfolio” highlights the following opportunities and initiatives ICLEI provides cities and regions in South America.