Our Activities

The ‘Platform on Coal Regions in Transition’ supports coal regions (local and/or regional governments) to take on the challenge of the clean energy transition by building capacity through needs-oriented technical assistance, focusing on key areas of the transition process; developing support materials, toolkits, guidelines, and reports, focusing on issues such as employment, governance, financing, environmental rehabilitation, clean air, and technologies; and connecting stakeholders and facilitating dialogue among regions and the wider stakeholder community. ICLEI aims to build awareness of the Platform and develop a reputation for the Platform as a valuable source of expertise and information among primary target audiences. ICLEI fosters the creation of dynamic knowledge-sharing communities among the Platform’s primary target audiences and encourages participation in cooperation and knowledge-sharing activities.

ICLEI enhances the socially inclusive and environmentally sound market uptake of wind energy by increasing its social acceptance in ‘wind energy scarce regions’ (WESR). The specific objectives are screening, analysing, discussing, replicating, testing and disseminating feasible solutions for increasing social acceptance and thereby the uptake of wind energy.
ICLEI actively contributes to driving the transition to renewable energy sources in Europe forward.

The Building Energy Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) assists sub-national governments in speeding up the process of adoption of best-practice policies and implementation of building efficiency projects, with the goal of doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvement in the building sector by 2030.

ICLEI is the regional lead for all activities in Southeast Asia.The BEA process of engagement in a city includes support for: Assessing and prioritizing locally-appropriate policies and actions; Implementing actions, through matching needs with expertise, resources and tools; Tracking action and documenting progress, and sharing lessons learned. BEA engages cities through a menu of policy options and key actions based on needs, and activities the partnership can provide in each location. Cities prioritize policies and activities, and the partnership connect them to resources and engagement around those priorities.

ICLEI is the Local Building Efficiency Accelerator Lead Partner, taking responsibility to plan and execute the work plan, to coordinate participating cities and stakeholders, and to facilitate the engagement among business and local governments in East Asia.

ICLEI maintains a long-lasting relationship with participating cities and partners by building an active and easy-to-reach communication channel, provides technical assistance to support cities in applying for international funding, and assists cities to develop commitment and form a feasible work plan.

Through the Building Efficiency Accelerator, local governments in China and Mongolia have ICLEI as a reliable partner to inquire about practical information for policy design and planning, to have access to international funding opportunities for project implementation and replication, and to strengthen the relationship with non-governmental stakeholders. The Building Efficiency Accelerator and ICLEI support local governments to cross the institutional, financial, and behavioral barriers.

ICLEI is helping to develop a Sustainable Urban Development framework in South Asia. The framework is to be based on UNEP’s Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability framework, addressing the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals, through actions developed on the basis of the framework. The goal of the framework is to adopt an integrated approach where the principles of a socially inclusive, economically viable, resilience and environmentally sound growth, drive all decisions and actions (governance, policies, strategies, technologies, infrastructure, planning, community involvement etc.) and result in sustained and resilient economic development in the region.

ICLEI will lead the implementation of activities in Germany with 10 local governments and 1 region and work on the dissemination and exploitation of the projects results. Aline to this, workshops for local and regional authorities at a national level will be organized, project’s communication activities will be established and informational events in participating countries will be run. The aim is to capitalize on the project outputs, trigger and facilitate planning for carbon neutrality at a local and regional level more widely across Europe and encourage the replication of exemplar sustainable energy and climate resilient projects.

ICLEI supports and promotes regional cooperation and collaboration and facilitates learning across member organizations and Asian countries for the Asia LEDS (Low Emission Development Strategies) Partnership (ALP), a voluntary regional network comprised of organizations and individuals from the public, private, and non-governmental sectors active in designing, promoting, and/or implementing LEDS in Asia. ICLEI assists Asian countries to advance LEDS, green growth strategy and achieve NDC targets. ICLEI offers peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and learning through online sessions and in-person regional peer learning and training workshops; access to resource materials such as issue briefs, case stories, decision tools, and training materials that enable practitioners to champion LEDS; and technical assistance to address specific technical needs and advance LEDS and NDC implementation.

In the past, we had primarily two ways of addressing global problems: nation-states and global corporations. The City Climate Cup propose a third, complementary way of addressing global problems: through networks of cities and the mobilization of civil society. City Climate Cup would produce novel solutions to global problems, and encourage their implementation and the learning of cities from each other. We propose to measure and benchmark sustainability progress, celebrate achievements and organize the sharing of good practices.

ICLEI is a Founding Signatory of the City Climate Cup initiative and aims to engage with cities to both encourage participation and highlight achievements through its available channels of communication in order to advocate for urban climate leaders to take the sherpa role for its peers.

This activity is designed to encourage citizen participation through the use of apps and other measuring methods in support of its city climate goal in low emission development.

Starting in 2019, local and regional governments are – for the first time – reporting climate action data through one unified reporting system. They give their permission to both CDP and ICLEI to use their publicly reported data and receive in return the support of both organizations. ICLEI uses this data to inform research and analysis activities focusing on diverse sectors from transport to waste, energy and air quality, and to represent local and regional governments on the global stage through our advocacy work. ICLEI supports local and regional governments to improve the quality of their reporting and provides performance reports to selected cities.

Building upon ICLEI´s commitment to engage in the NDC Partnership and as the first associate member, ICLEI created a modular approach to addresses the vertical integration of NDC implementation and investment plans, outlining the contribution of local and regional governments in the NDCs. ICLEI’s participation is structured in four parts: coordinating a multilevel action working group (MAWG); knowledge products and tools; country engagement for developing Partnership Plans (PPs), working with countries wanting to join the NDCP; and project management and coordination with a range of partners.

ICLEI provides detailed guidance and practice-oriented resources to technical staff through an open access, online, low emission development platform. The Solutions Gateway is an online resource platform for local and regional governments where they will be able to find relevant Low Emissions Development (LED) Solutions for their cities. The platform contains sectoral and cross-sectoral packages of activities, structured along local government responsibilities and spheres of influence, to support cities in the development of low-emission strategies, plans, and projects. The Solutions Gateway contents are based on proven technologies and practices, distilled into Solutions and Solution Packages which are drafted and peer-reviewed by experts of the respective field.

ICLEI provides technical guidance by participating in GCoM’s technical working groups, which address mitigation and adaptation in specific data-related sub-groups, including Emissions and Targets; Climate Action Planning; Resilience; and Access to Energy. ICLEI also participates in non-data related groups, including Access to Finance; Governance and Regional Coherence; Research; and Communications.

ICLEI has a representative in each group and sub-group, submits written comments and attends calls and in-person meetings. The goal is to unify and centralize how data are reported, using which channels, and how is it communicated to global stakeholders. ICLEI also provides data revision towards GCoM requirements for ICLEI Members and network of cities.

The project promotes multilevel governance policy dialogue, strengthen capacities and encourage the development of national, regional and local enabling frameworks to unlock local RE potential, also addressing energy efficiency. ICLEI will showcase how local projects and policies contribute to the achievement of national climate and energy targets in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other policy objectives such as energy security and job creation, in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.