By participating in GCoM, Korean local governments can make their climate actions more ambitious and consistent through reporting and learn from their peers about ambitious climate actions.In order to support Korean local government participation in GCoM, ICLEI organizes GCoM sessions at international climate events such as Seoul Mayors Forum, supports local governments’ reporting to ICLEI-CDP unified reporting system, translates guidance and materials (e.g. Common Reporting Framework, CDP reporting guidance), invites local governments to various networking opportunities on urban climate action, publicizes their activities related to GCoM initiative and outreachs to cities of potential interest with Korean promotional materials.

District Energy Systems produce steam, hot water or chilled water at a central plant, making them much more efficient and less energy consuming. Under this project ICLEI assesses potential for district energy systems in Indian cities with an aim to develop integrated roadmaps for energy policy and investment for scale-up of district cooling in specific cities. ICLEI’s objective is to assist Indian cities to accelerate their transition to low-carbon and climate resilient societies through modern district energy system.

ICLEI is the lead author, supported by groups of city and carbon accounting experts from various fields, in the development of industry standards for local government GHG emissions accounting in the US. The development of the U.S. Community Protocol, the Local Government Operations Protocol, and the Recycling and Composting Protocol positioned ICLEI as exclusive experts in local government carbon accounting. Recognizing this expertise, ICLEI was asked to contribute to the development of the Global Protocol for Community Scale GHG emissions (GPC) and is currently working on an update to the U.S. Community Protocol to better account for forestry and land use changes. ICLEI continues to provide technical guidance for the application of the protocols to cities and practitioners around the world.

ICLEI advances achievement of state and local sustainability goals by assisting California cities and counties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. The support is offered to any local government free of charge, and can be a light-touch (answering questions) to in-depth assistance (completion of an GHG inventory).

In addition to technical support, the program convenes an annual peer-exchange event, offers virtual training, and recognizes communities that hit milestones in clean energy and climate action. ICLEI’s GHG emissions management tool, ClearPath, has been adapted to meet California specific requirements and opportunities. The program makes the software tool available at no cost to all local governments statewide; provides technical support in the development of GHG inventories and climate action plans, and shares out best practices observed.

Local governments are key actors when it comes to tackling climate change. Reducing GHG emissions at the local level should be managed and monitored using well-structured mechanisms. In South Korea, the Korea Environment Corporation (KeCO) supports Korean Local governments to calculate their GHG inventories. It has developed a tool based on the IPCC 2016 Guidelines, and it provides technical capacity for developing local GHG inventories. At the global level ICLEI, WRI and C40 developed the Global Protocol for Community-scale GHG inventories (GPC), now embedded in the GCoM Data Standard. This is the recommended approach for all local governments. Yet not all tools used by local governments are aligned to this new global approach. By aligning KeCO’s tool with the GPC, local governments in Korea can benefit in terms of cost and time when reporting their inventory together with their reduction target and action plan – connecting tem to the global developments. ICLEI coordinates the alignment process and the application process to obtain for the KeCO GHG tool an official stamp of approval, confirming the tool is confrm to the GPC, as part of the WRI GHG Protocol. This will enable Korean local governments to report their GG inventoriues using the KeCo tool, thereby receiving confirmation that they are using the Gcom Data Standard of global reporting.

Over the course of the PACMUN project, ICLEI has worked with over 450 Mexican municipalities to develop GHG inventories, collect data and define local climate action plans. Project activities focus on building the capacity of municipal staff to establish goals and prioritize actions on climate and resilience. Municipalities also work with ICLEI to report their climate and data and can voluntarily submit their climate action plans to the Ministry of Environment.

ICLEI has supported Fórum CB27 since its creation in 2012, and, in 2017, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation invited ICLEI to contribute to the institutional strengthening of the group through a strategic planning process and regular facilitation of CB27 meetings. ICLEI’s mission is directly connected to the Forum’s activities, in that it seeks to connect cities and local governments dedicated to sustainable development.
As a strategic partner of CB27, ICLEI supports its planning, content curation and meeting preparation, communication strategies, advocacy cooperation, and operation of the Executive Secretariat of the Forum, as well as actively participates in meetings and activites and coordinates advocacy strategies.

Ecoinstitute SCCL together with ICLEI is developing the LCC tools in 2018 and 2019. A public consultation on the tool(s) is carried out in cooperation with the Procura+ European Sustainable Procurement Network Interest Group on LCC. Once the tools are developed, they will be publicly availble for procurers to use in their tender procedures.

ICLEI operates the Helpdesk on behalf of the European Commission, with the goal of providing an easy entry point to GPP for all European public authorities to increase the uptake and professionalization of GPP. Part of the GPP Helpdesk service are the publication of monthly newsletters, answering Helpdesk queries, semi-annual educational webinars on a content management on the European Commission’s GPP website; and dissemination of GPP policy and practice towards the Member States and all other organizations that fall within the scope of the EU Public Procurement Directives.

ICLEI supports the leading national sustainable cities initiative in Japan. The initiative started as Environmental Model City Initiative in 2008, evolved into FutureCIty Initiative in 2011, and matured as SDGs FutureCity Initiative in 2018. ICLEI and member cities have been actively involved in the Initiative from the beginning; and recently contributed to The 7th International Forum focused on the localization of SDGs.