Our Activities

The objective of the IUC programme is to contribute to improve international urban policy diplomacy and increase decentralized cooperation on sustainable urban development and climate change through a focus on sustainable energy. In North America the focus of the project is 1) on peering North American cities with European one so that they can learn from each other on how to tackle their GHG emissions and 2) on providing technical support to GCOM members.

ICLEI provides the capacity of the second key expert and two non-key experts who conduct the following activities:
1) Provide latest information, methodologies, tools, knowledge and skills that support local governments’ projects and policies at all stages of planning and implementation.
2) Support knowledge sharing and exchange of best practices between the Korean and EU cities.
3) Support policy dialogue events and meetings specifically in relation to topics related to sustainable urban development
4) Compile case studies and related stakeholder profiles
The project activity includes establishment of a digital platform, in which EU and Korean nonstate actors can join, share and accelerate climate action. It is expected that exchanging best practices and matching needs through the joint platform will increase the replication of successes, avoid repetition of failures, and generally lead to more ambitious and impactful climate actions.

Through the project, ICLEI will support in the preparation of the Vulnerability Index and Climate Change Adaptation Plan for the city of Recife, which aims to identify and prioritize concrete measures to adapt to climate change in the city, based on the analysis vulnerability and climate risk, addressing the environmental, economic and social dimensions in a way that contributes to building the city's climate resilience in the face of dangers related to climate change. The project will take place through the city vulnerability analysis for climate change and the identification of priority areas of intervention with emphasis on priority intervention areas (hotspots).

Through the project, ICLEI will support in the development of a technical training for Baixada Santista Municipalities for identifying vulnerabilities and developing adaptation measures to prevent the impacts of climate change on water resources. The overall objective of this project is to ensure that the target audience is trained on the issue with a focus on adaptation, in order to identify vulnerabilities, propose adaptation measures to prevent risks to water resources and to access financial resources for elaboration of plans, programs or projects for the implementation of adaptation actions in the Baixada Santista region.

This proposal outlines a mechanism that could offer comprehensive support and a replicable approach that could be applied globally to assist local and regional governments to develop robust and transformative projects, and to help them to navigate in the complex world of technical and financial options, meet in person potential partners, and so contributing to close the above described gap between supply and demand.

ICLEI is gathering information and quantifying the climate impact of options to allow people to make better lifestyle choices aligned to a 1.5 degree scenario. We are doing this by estimating the average carbon footprint of middle class Capetonians, and estimating the carbon reduction impact of various lifestyle choices. This will help to bring to the fore practical actions that citizens and local governments can take to reduce carbon emissions.

ICLEI participated in the development of the current version of the GPC as part of a multi-institutional cooperation along with The World Bank; UN Habitat; WRI and C40 and promoted the use and application of this protocol through its programs and related projects. Currently ICLEI participates in the further iteration of the GPC along with C40 and WRI which will allow complete integration with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy – Common Reporting Framework.

This will allow vertical (Multi-level) and horizontal integration of data for reporting entities reducing the effort to report in several standards of frameworks.

ICLEI‘s is leading this network under its thematic community on renewables. This network serves as the entry point for local & regional governments to participate in the Global 100% RE Platform.
Cities, towns and regions, who have a 100% RE target in at least one sector or committed to explore a 100% RE pathway or commit to sharing of information, knowledge exchange and are interested in international cooperation, are invited to join this network.
ICLEI's 100% RE network and the 100% RE global platform, provides knowledge exchange, engagement and policy dialogue with other leading cities and experts on a global scale. This is inclusive and free of charge.
Cities, towns and regions can join the network based on their needs, challenges and level of development. They benefit from learning and cooperation opportunities with other leading cities, access to experts on renewables and energy efficiency, opportunities to globally promote local solutions and service providers, worldwide recognition of the progress achieved, visibility to champion local and regional leaders at global level

ICLEI South America’s “First steps for local action” GHG emissions inventories online training addresses the initial phases for cities to start acting on climate. It offers local authorities introductory concepts of the challenges cities are facing with climate change and guides them through practical guidelines to tackle the problem, based on the GreenClimateCities (GCC) methodology. To support autonomy and leadership in cities, the training also highlighted the technologies available to support GHG emissions evaluation and analysis, through Clearpath and CLIMAS platforms, and showcased testimonies from cities who have already started or succeed in the process.

These online trainings have been held since 2016, but in 2018 it was the first time it was available in a new and dynamic format online.The training was offered to the local staff of all South American ICLEI members during a period of 5-weeks course, comprised of informative videos, supplemental reading resources, live webinars with specialists, quizzes and remote support.

As a result of the training, local government representatives have a better understanding of the challenge they have ahead of them and will be able to conduct the GCC methodology in an independent way, with ICLEI’s support.

Through this project, ICLEI as a leading member of the implementing consortium leads the work package set up to help enhance institutional frameworks through political advocacy and networking. ICLEI leads the project’s support to address legal and institutional frameworks and promote multilevel governance in pilot countries to provide an enabling environment for local and national governments to coordinate and streamline their urban planning and relevant priority sector activities. To this end, ICLEI establishes dialogues (including Talanoa dialogues) and explores partnerships and networking opportunities with political leaders at all levels and leveraging on its role as focal point to the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) constituency of the UN Climate Change and the Friends of Cities group.

ICLEI also provides technical expertise to the local governments in the development of their Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plans (SEACAPs); supports the project’s work to enhance local climate finance and supports the project’s communication and awareness raising activities.

ICLEI worked with partners to organize the Low-Carbon City 2.0 Professional Series Workshops and The International Conference on Mitigation Strategies for Green Transformation in Cities. International experts from Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia were invited to give a series of trainings on decarbonizing actions, urban energy efficiency improvement and low-carbon transformation featuring case studies in East Asia cities and the world. The in-depth discussions between local officers and international experts enhanced the sense of responsibility of carbon reduction in various departments, and promoted the role of local governments in changing from “regulation” to the supporting multi-stakeholders in the new climate and low carbon regime.

Building Resilience and Adaptation Capacity (BRACE) bridges the gap between tools and information and their successful application in meaningful and influential decision making processes. ICLEI held a series of workshops throughout Manitoba on barriers and opportunities to advance climate adaptation action throughout the Province. These high impact consultation and engagement workshops targeted decision makers and stakeholders in four key sectors: 1) Indigenous and northern communities, organizations, 2) Business sector organizations, 3) Municipal communities or regions and watershed planning organizations, and 4) Infrastructure decision makers and organizations.

ICLEI Oceania has posted a ‘science communications toolkit’ on the website, a collation of useful resources for sustainability students. Through the Young Writers Network students and graduates are empowered to become engaging communicators. Sharing evidence-based knowledge in credible and persuasive ways is paramount to the health of a mindful and engaged society, and is a prerequisite for sustainable development policies at all levels of government, especially local and regional governments, who interface most closely with communities. Through capacity building, and offering online resources and social networking events in partnership with other sustainability organisations in Melbourne, Australia, ICLEI is assisting academic researchers in translating their sustainability research into practice. ICLEI is assisting researchers and students in translating their sustainability research into practice.

The Urban Transition Alliance connects industrial legacy cities from Europe, USA and China committed to accelerate ambitious and inclusive transitions, as well as showcasing their sustainability leadership. Alliance cities share their own transition experiences, knowledge and good practices based on social, economic and environmental challenges within their unique industrial legacy context. Through a tailored exchange platform hosted by ICLEI, the Alliance helps cities to identify and leverage expertise to co-create implementation strategies for sustainability-related projects.

During the current project phase, the ICLEI further encourages the Alliance member cities to include an equity-based approach in their transition projects, not only to achieve climate and environmental targets, but also to provide opportunities to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Alliance cities receive support on key equity-focused sustainability issues through two challenge cycles in 2020 and 2021 with 4-5 challenge topics selected per round. The outcomes of these challenge support cycles will shape a blueprint of lessons and good practices for cities worldwide on how social equity and climate action can reinforce each other.

ICLEI East Asia and UNDRR co-hosted two workshops for two Chinese cities – Ningbo and Chengdu – to raise awareness of urban resilience with specific focuses on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction among local officials.
The workshops were structured in sessions of concept and tools introduction, and presentations of international and domestic cases on resilience and adaptation. Assessments of local resilience were also conducted via group exercises followed by suggestions on improvements.
ICLEI East Asia and UNDRR will continue to work to support 2 more local governments in China in implementing the Sendai Framework and other urban resilience objectives via workshops. It is expected that local disaster risk reduction planning will be better risk-informed when cities are equipped with skills to assess their respective risks, identify gaps, and ultimately lead to projects to address those gaps. A learning publication will be produced as the final output of the series, to share lessons learned on improving urban resilience in the context of global warming with other cities.