In order for national and local governments to better appreciate the need for safe walking and cycling facilities, Africa’s urban citizens need to challenge the widely held assumption that they all wish to drive cars by showing their support for walking and cycling. Various local initiatives around the continent (such as car-free days, place making, Open Streets, Critical Mass etc.) are inspiring citizens to reimagine and reinvent their streets to be accessible for all. African Mobility Month aims to celebrate these and other activities to raise the priority of walking and cycling in the continent’s development agenda.

The ICLEI EcoLogistics Community is the first city network globally committed to a sustainable urban freight future. The Community leads sustainable urban freight development in participating cities and drive global actions in the international stage through collaborative exchange and action plans and stakeholder engagements. Cities benefit from being part of the Community through the shared knowledge and resources made available to the network, as well as opportunities to disseminate their successes.

SOLUTIONSplus is coordinated by the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI) and joined by 45 worldwide partners. The project aims to enable transformational change towards sustainable urban mobility through innovative and integrated electric mobility solutions.

Project cities will be able to demonstrate different types of innovative and integrated e-mobility solutions, complemented by a comprehensive toolbox, capacity development and replication activities. SOLUTIONSplus works closely with the UN Environment and the International Energy Agency (IEA) on a joint global urban e-mobility program that will significantly boost replication and impact of this innovation action.

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

The event was organized by ICLEI SAMS in partnership with Secretariat for Infrastructure and Environment of , Regions4, Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework – EU Support initiative, the support of CETESB, Fundação Florestal, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve (RBMA), the envolvement of ICLEI Africa and Cities Biodiversity Centre representation. The event aimed to formulate contributions from several Brazilian actors regarding key points for the new Post-2020 global framework of the Biological Diversity Convention (CBD), which will be defined in the next COP15 of CBD. To this end, the “Letter of São Paulo” was prepared as a result of the event, as a document that compiled the local, subnational contributions, from the biosphere reserves, civil society entities, from the private sector, among others. With this, the intention is to reach a global agreement for nature and for people to be recognized by the 196 signatory countries to the Convention. The event featured moments of group work in sessions with some thematic axes and also expository moments of practices on these themes.

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.

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 providing a platform for inspiration, action and the commitment to take sustainability to the next level.

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.