Our Activities
Cities are complex systems. The components of urban systems, from food distribution networks and energy grids to transport and greenways, are interconnected and dynamic. Intervening to create change in any one of these components may impact others, creating systemic change. Designing solutions that take these interconnections into account is critical to sustainable development.
The five ICLEI pathways towards low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development are designed to create systemic change. When these pathways guide local and regional development, urban systems becomes more sustainable. The pathways provide provide a framework for designing integrated solutions that balance the patterns of human life and the built and natural environments. They encourage holistic thinking. For instance, working together, the local and regional governments and global experts of ICLEI consider how nature-based development contributes to resilience, or how to bring equity into low emission development.
We design our work to integrate as many pathways as possible. Each individual pathway is multidimensional, incorporating numerous strategies for sustainable development. When more pathways are integrated into any given activity, such as a project, partnership or initiative, a greater degree of change can occur. Often, our activities are guided by a predominant pathway or set of pathways. In any given city or region, multiple activities may be implemented along each pathway.
This searchable digital collection of our activities worldwide includes technical resources, including digital platforms, methodologies and tools, as well as networks, projects, programs, partnerships, events and initiatives that guide action along the pathways, spark new partnerships and create city-to-city and city-to-region connections.
Each entry in this digital collection is marked with predominant pathways, keywords and related Sustainable Development Goals.
ICLEI provides awareness raising and capacity building to all spheres of government in mainstreaming biodiversity, through guidance on vertical and horizontal integration to ensure successful implementation of biodiversity strategies and action plans (BSAPS); clarifies the role and contribution to be made at national, subnational and local level; and provide practical technical guidance to national, subnational […]
Vertical-Horizontal Integration and Subnational Implementation of NBSAPs
ICLEI supports the sub-national governments’ initiative on achieving Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Aichi Prefecture called for a group of leading sub-national governments showing significant efforts for achieving the Aichi Targets. The initiative was established during CBD-COP13 in Cancun, Mexico in 2016 and joined by a significant number of sub-national governments. ICLEI supported its launch and is […]
Group of Leading Subnational Governments towards Achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets
The goal of this project is to mainstream biodiversity, nature-based solutions and ecosystem management, seek recognition for these as cross-sectoral tasks and integrated them in subnational Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans and sector plans in three model city-regions. ICLEI launched the four-year INTERACT-Bio project in three Global South countries: Brazil, India and Tanzania. ICLEI is […]
Using empirical research, ICLEI is developing a framework and tools to assess changes in food-water-energy nexus, their related trade-offs and the building of innovative capabilities in cities for developing innovative solutions to the food, water and energy nexus and manage green and blue infrastructure at the urban level. ICLEI is supporting the development of frameworks […]
The project is developed and implemented in three major components: 1) Building evidence and enable the local uptake of public health tools; 2) City implementation of analyses of health benefits from SLCP mitigation strategies, as well as stakeholder engagement, using the local evidence of health benefits to support SLCP reduction measures at the local level […]
UH&SLCP (Urban Health and Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Project)
International Smart and Sustainable Transport Workshop was jointly hosted by ICLEI, Intelligent Transportation Society of Taiwan (ITS Taiwan) and the Advanced Public Transportation Research Center at the National Taiwan University (APTRC), in Taipei, 11-13 April 2018. The three day workshop brought together young professionals in the public service in Asia-Pacific to discuss the challenges commonly […]
International Smart and Sustainable Transport Workshop
ICLEI is developing a Green City Action Plan for the city of Kota Kinabalu following a multi-stakeholder consultative process, as a part of the Asian Development Bank’s (ABD) development of Green City Action Plans in the BIMP-EAGA region (comprised of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and East Timor). The City of Kota Kinabalu is committing […]
KK GCAP (Kota Kinabalu Green City Action Plan)
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals Estimates (SEEG) is an initiative of the Climate Observatory that includes the production of annual estimates of GHG emissions in Brazil, analytical documents on the evolution of emissions and a web portal to provide simple and clear system methods and data. The SEEG methodology was published in the journal […]
SEEG (GHG Emissions and Removals Estimates in Brazil)
The 2019 European Mobility Week (EMW) project guides and aggregates volunteer local action for EcoMobility. This campaign in Korea accelerates sustainable mobiliy actions at the local level by voluntarily setting cities’ plan of weekly activities and permanent policy change. ICLEI’s one week campaign helps local governments to raise citizens’ awareness about sustainable mobility and its […]
ICLEI established a replicable framework that can be used by local governments throughout the country to attribute the observed changes in community GHG emissions inventories. Practitioners within cities and counties are now able to harness data to produce a more accurate depiction in changes to community-scale efficiency, communicate those trends more clearly, and use the […]
Contribution Analysis (Drivers of Change in GHG emissions)
This workshop will provide an overview of global trends in environmental disclosure and reporting in 2019 in light of the recent announcement of CDP and ICLEI’s joint unified reporting system. Workshop participants will gain expanded knowledge of global city climate policy and new trends in reporting and measuring environmental impact, an overview of CDP and […]
Workshop on Climate Reporting Towards Ambitious Local Actions
Since 2008, ICLEI’s Cities Biodiversity Center (CBC) has convened successive summits as official parallel events to the Conference on Biological Diversity COP, to enable local and subnational governments engagement. These Summits have resulted in strong political outcomes, including the Quintana Roo (2016) and Sharm El-Sheikh (2018) Communiques, Nagoya Plan of Action on Subnational Governments, Cities […]
ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center (ICLEI CBC)
A group of students from Northeastern University has been studying Fortaleza’s current Climate Action Plan, its actions and goals, and how far they have advanced. They have also been studying American projects, policies and initiatives, in order to be able to explore how policies, technologies, and cultural differences in various countries have helped grow and […]
ICLEI SD Lab – Northeastern University
ICLEI supports the Clean Energy Living Laboratories (CELLs) and the Project Management Office, especially on local government engagement. ICLEI works with demonstration cities to mainstream a local energy plan and assists the CELLs in developing a curriculum for an executive education program targeting policymakers and stakeholders and support advocacy activities. ICLEI facilitates City-to-City Exchange activities, […]
ICLEI develops and showcases an integrated and comprehensive approach to address urban transport issues and promote sustainable built environment and urban mobility strategies. The project supports four Indian Smart Cities (Gwalior, Ludhiana , Udaipur and Visakhapatnam) by building the local government’s capacity by providing technical advisory to develop smart built environment action plans that focus […]
Supporting Sustainable Urban Transport and Built Environment in Four Indian Smart Cities