ICLEI USA provided technical advisory services at the request of the Climate Smart citizen task force of Philipstown New York. ICLEI contributed to the development of a baseline estimate for "net" GHG emissions after removals. The object of the analysis was to inform the development of a Climate Action Plan to outline the policies and actions local government, community partners, and individuals could take to measurably reduce emissions and adapt to unavoidable climate change. The task force recommended that the Town adopt the analysis given that it best localizes the global emissions resulting from the community’s actions and unites efforts to promote community health, a growing local economy, environmental stewardship and other sustainability initiatives under the common banner of a collective plan to address climate change. The town set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2040 and explored opportunities to do that with and without the purchase of carbon offsets.

>> See also project description.
ICLEI organizes five strategic workshops for the network members on four thematic vision clusters (future proof, 100% renewable, zero waste, human scale) and on the organization of an EGCA laureate year.
Develops a set of well-structured toolkits, combining print and online resources that inspire cities to embark on or further advance local sustainability transitions.
ICLEI also assesses a potential enlargement of membership of the Network of the European Green Capitals as well as provides recommendations for the inclusion of and/ or increased collaboration with other networks.
ICLEI further promotes the European Green Capital Network and highlights the benefits of sharing the inspiration through the dissemination of the latest information on the project developments and the toolkits to at least 150 other ‘target cities’.

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.

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

ICLEI was responsible on international policy processes. Through desk research, interviews and direct participation, ICLEI identified relevant political dynamics and processes regarding the rural-urban nexus in the context of HABITAT III (preparation and implementation) and the implementation of the SDGs. The aim is to identify ways through which the German federal government, and especially the Ministry for Environment and Building, can influence these processes in order to foster a global sustainable rural-urban nexus.
Part of the problem is that there is a limited understanding of the interconnections and hence development potential between urban and peri-urban areas due to an insufficient data base and lack of suitable indicators. That's why ICLEI collected fitting indicators out of a pool of (inter)national indicator sets and – in a second step – developed relevant indicators where needed. The indicators developed in the RUN project can serve as a starting point to better un-derstand these linkages and identify the most relevant data needed.

ICLEI is responsible for the sharing, dissemination and valorisation of knowledge and experiences produced within the project. By this ICLEI ensures that the knowledge, experiences and results produced are not only well documented and widely shared but also relevant for local communities and policy-makers in Europe. ICLEI synthesizes results and produces key project deliverables combining established dissemination tools with more innovative, participatory activities. In detail ICLEI:
– disseminates and valorises the knowledge and experiences produced within the project
– synthesises and communicates project results in formats that underline their relevance for local communities and policy-makers in Europe
– advances self-reflective learning and stimulates public debates on social innovation through transition initiatives
– informs future implementation frameworks for sustainability and low-carbon policies on the local, national and EU level

The Connecting Nature front-runner cities will draw on their experiences and work with fast-follower cities in a capacity-building role. The project will expand upon existing urban sustainability and innovation initiatives, create a reference framework of clear and useful indicators for the implementation and evaluation of nature-based solutions, build expertise and competency in all cities for innovative urban planning, policy and solution implementation, generate economic opportunities for a diversity of urban actors in Europe, and nurture urban community support, idea creation, active stakeholder participation and idea implementation at local levels and expansion and replication at a global level, through the global reach of ICLEI. The ICLEI European Secretariat will, through its regional offices in East Asia, South Korea and Brazil, in collaboration with local partners in these regions, work on drawing down matching regional funding and establish local Connecting Nature linked initiatives that will adapt and embed mechanisms for the co-production of solutions in those locations and cities.

Establishing transdisciplinary foundations
– Facilitate, organize and conduct Urban-Regional Innovation Partnerships (URIPs) dialogues
Developing a novel nature based solutions assessment framework
– Engage stakeholders in Utrecht and Malmö in a multi-criteria method to determine stakeholder values.
– Extend the learning process to the other URIPs in a two-day workshop.
– Identify how current insights and existing methods and models can be combined, improved and further developed.
Enabling conditions for systemic integration
– Participate in the methodological workshop and co-design of the research protocol.
– Undertake the work on systemic integration at the EU level.
Realising the potential of NBS
– Launch the Nature4Cities platform
– Disseminate Nature4Cities through ICLEI member cities
– Support community events
– Draw on contacts with municipal government
– Undertake a scenario back-casting exercise with the URIPs and 15 ICLEI member cities
– Hold a 1.5 day workshop with the URIP members and participants at the ICLEI Resilient Cities congress
Creating trandisciplinary capcity & delivering NATURVATION
– Generate conference/journal papers

Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Training: ICLEI provided in-person training for Los Angeles City staff on Climate Action Planning. The training focused on the following topics:
•Climate equity and community driven processes;
•5 Milestone Process: Data Driven Planning;
•Inventory: what sectors are usually measured, what it can tell you, determining trends; emissions forecasting and emissions reduction planning;
•Vulnerability assessment: criteria to consider, sectors, ranking; ensuring relevance by including the correct stakeholders (e.g., community members); place-based, model-informed, expert-driven, transparent;
•Best practices in the process and structure; and
•Action monitoring and report.

In 2011 ICLEI Africa launched the inaugral Local Climate Solutions for Africa. It brings together key national, subnational, local government and private sector leaders from across Africa to discuss and explore collective solutions for addressing climate related challenges that threaten to derail sustainable development in Africa.

The 2020 theme “Financing for Change” will respond to the growing acknowledgement worldwide that to tackle climate change, city-scale finance must be mobilised. Local finance will give subnational actors access to the resources they need to harness the emission reduction potential in cities, and to respond effectively to climate change at the local level. Improved multi-level governance and increased finance flow to the local level will speed up implementation of current national and international climate change commitments.

ICLEI is an implementing partner in the LGCCSP4 through the development of training material and provision of capacity building. The methodology used in the implementation of the activity is three fold as follows:
-To inform the development of the capacity building workshops, training materials and in-depth technical assistance, ICLEI undertook a desktop research and reviewed relevant studies, papers, and projects undertaken in South Africa, Africa and globally, with a specific focus on local government climate action and climate finance.
-To foster a thorough understanding of climate/green finance principles for local government officials, ICLEI developed a training manual drawing on the key lessons and implications for climate and green finance in South Africa.
– Conducted highly interactive training to 200 municipal officials using a learning-by-doing approach and to provide a review of municipal project proposals to determine the best-suited types of funding and financing and the best type of funders.

As the frequency and intensity of climate change related disasters increase, local communities are severely impacted. In response to recent climate related disasters on the continent, ICLEI Africa is stepping up to support cities in reducing their disaster risk. We draw on two decades of on-the-ground work in Africa, building and strengthening resilience through proactive planning.

•Conduct Sustainability Assessment of Existing Programs
•Develop Sustainability Baseline Assessment and Gaps
•Set Sustainability Goals
•Develop the Sustainability Plan
•Implement the Plan and Monitor Program
•Develop Sustainability Work Program Document
•Engage the Public, City Council, and Other Stakeholders

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.

The PROMISE Tool has helped strengthen capacity of local government for integrated, participatory, inclusive and sustainable development and efficient resource mobilisation and utilisation to enhance service delivery, increase community participation and promote diversity in the urban system. Local authorities have been supported to create, enable and institutionalize equitable and inclusive governance mechanism and facilitate the development of smart and sustainable growth in cities through the project. Cities identified the projects that are most desirable and needed by the community. Local governments have recognized the need and importance of citizen engagement.

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.

Cities are growing and changing so fast that many authorities are struggling to cope. ICLEI’s aim is to boost sustainable urban development, through city-to-city International Urban Cooperation (IUC) on and foster sub-national actions under the Global Covenant of Mayors initiative. ICLEI supports regional innovation strategies and inter-regional cooperation for local and regional development.

The IADAPT project addresses the water management issues in Indian cities, moving from existing water management practices that plan, establish and operate water supply, wastewater and storm water systems as separate entities to more integrated and collaborative approaches. ICLEI is helping two Indian cities – Solapur and Vijayawada to be climate resilient by developing an integrated catchment management plan guided by the decision support tool developed to move from conventional water management approaches to an ‘Integrated Approach’ based on the principles of IWRM and IUWM. The project will institutionalize climate adaptive water resource management at catchment level guided by participatory catchment planning, simple decision support tools, preparation of catchment level action plans and multi-pronged financing approaches.

In this action research project, ICLEI is providing support to four cities in developing collaboration mechanisms that advance climate resilient developmment, which can then be adapted to other contexts. The implementation of each country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) via enhanced multi-level governance has been identified as an area of focus of this project. Through this project, ICLEI builds on the understanding of what enables collaboration mechanisms for climate resilient development, such as environments that allow for learning-by-doing and accumulation of knowledge that can be harnessed, local government officials who are engaged and passionate about building climate resilience, and cities where strong multi-sectoral partnerships exist. Building climate resilience is a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary issue, and therefore ICLEI promotes collaborative governance, which favours transdisciplinary collaborations that increase the depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise that can be drawn on when tackling complex issues such as climate resilience.

ICLEI supports the island cities by providing streamlined processes for assessing their risks and challenges and developing achievable action plans. It works side-by-side with the cities and assists them to find partners for action. ICLEI has been working with Honiara since 2016 to assist the City to undertake a disaster risk self assessment and action, using the Sendai Framework and scorecards, building capacity and supporting city leaders and staff to attend international events for peer-to-peer exchange and learning. There is now a strong understanding of disaster risk reduction among City staff and elected councilors, and an understanding of how disasters and climate change impact all the city development challenges. The ongoing project has led to strong partnerships between ICLEI, UNISDR, UN Habitat and academic professionals and institutions.

American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) program matches communities with earth and space scientists to lay strong, scientifically based foundations for climate action and adaptation planning. ICLEI partnered with TEX for a facilitated workshop with scientists and 12 communities, including ICLEI members Reno and Missoula. In 2017, ICLEI worked with members Antioch, East Lansing, and Savannah as part of the Resilience Dialogues, a public-private collaboration to connect communities with the most appropriate resources. ICLEI acted as a community network lead to help scientists, experts and city staff deliver a set of resiliency questions and connect threats to resource.

ICLEI supports Fiji cities by providing streamlined processes for assessing their risks and challenges and developing achievable action plans. It works side-by-side with the cities and assists them to find partners for action. ICLEI has recently assisted 7 city and town councils to undertake disaster risk self assessment and action planning, using the Sendai Framework and scorecards, and built capacity for disaster risk reduction at 2-day workshops with these cities. City staff and elected councilors now hav an understanding of how disasters and climate change impact all the city development challenges. The outcomes of the DRR workshops have been collated into a “Generic Fiji Local Government DRR Action Plan” and provided to the Ministry Local Government and the National Disaster Management Office as input for their current reviews of the Local Government Act and National Disaster Management Plan.

While many island urban settlements are growing rapidly, climate change and increasingly frequent disasters are stressing urban systems. ICLEI promotes sustainable island and urban development through resilience and systems planning, clean energy, coastal fisheries management, infrastructure, innovative finance, ecosystems services, post disaster recovery and sustainable tourism. ICLEI collaborates with Mayors and leaders, through twinning of island cities with other cities and regions, to create fruitful partnerships to deliver scalable solutions to build resilience on islands and globally.

This workshop focused on exploring solutions, technology and applications on building a more resilient and water smart city by a series of indoor lectures, technical visits and group presentations. The target participants include government officials, executives, and research and development personnel responsible for the water management and technical implementation. Experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, New Zealand, Australia and Netherlands shared their expertise with representatives from fifteen countries.

ICLEI, through the AfriAlliance project, aims to support existing networks in identifying and sharing social innovations and technological solutions for key water and climate challenges. Capitalising on existing and emerging knowledge and innovation in Africa and the EU, ICLEI supports this process by contributing to the development of a social innovation database for water and climate solutions covering the following aspects: governance, capacity development, business development and technology. ICLEI also contributes to the development of project outputs such as policy briefs, social innovation factsheets, roadshows and innovation bridge events, as well as MOOCs. We also work on communication and visibility of the project, and building relationships between partners and their networks, raising awareness of the water related challenges, and opportunities related to climate change impacts with proposed adaptation measures.

With support from the Korea Environmental Corporation and the World Bank, ICLEI is supporting the cities of Dharamshala and Kullu-Manali in Himachal Pradesh in the preparation of solid waste management strategies and action plans, as a pilot to improve integrated solid waste management for the mountainous regions of Pakistan, India, and Nepal. The project supports these cities to collect data for solid waste management, conduct surveys and waste quantification and characterisation studies, and finally, provide inputs to waste management strategies for mountainous regions. In order to improve solid waste management in the region, the project aims to analyze current solid waste management in the mountainous regions of Pakistan, India and Nepal, provide suggestions on integrated strategies and models for each country, and to develop guidelines for sustainable solid waste management in the region.

ICLEI conducted Municipal Solid Waste Management Exposure Workshops for more than 100 urban local bodies and strengthened their institutional capacities towards collection, treatment, disposal and efficient management of various types and categories of waste. The project also developed training modules, identified external experts and facilitated site visits for participants from local governments. Five 3-day workshops were conducted at different locations as suggested by the National Institute of Urban Affairs. The workshops and site visits will help the municipal officials to develop an understanding of the commonly faced issues, challenges and constraints of managing municipal solid waste. The capacities of the municipal staff will be built to effectively execute municipal solid waste projects and plans as per the mandate of the revised Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Rapid IUWM aims to build the capacity of urban local bodies to understand interlinkages between water, wastewater and storm water; and adopt an integrated urban water management planning and implementation approach through multi stakeholder involvement. Two local urban bodies in Rajasthan (Kishangargh and Ajmer) developed an IUWM based vision for their cities and developed an action plan to achieve the IUWM vision. Both the cities implemented a pilot project based on prioritized strategy selected through stakeholder consultations. The project also builds the capacity of local authorities to create, enable, institutionalize and promote inclusive governance mechanisms undertaking water sector reforms for closing the urban water loop and conservation of water bodies within the cities.

The project ‘Urban-Rural Assembly’ (URA) aims to build a better understanding of the urban-rural constellation and interdependencies that are emerging along China’s vast urbanisation corridors, and which can no longer be described through traditional binaries of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’. The region Huangyan-Taizhou, part of the Chinese ‘prefectural-level city‘ Taizhou, will be examined as an exemplary case study and learning context: a rapidly urbanising region where diverse and seemingly contradictory transformation processes take place simultaneously in close proximity, producing multiple dimensions of urban-rural interrelations. URA combines leading partners in the field of sustainable urban and regional transformation in Germany and China. ICLEI supports the research project in creating an interface between the research partners and policy makers, both within the case region as well as nationally in China and internationally. Through the development of transferable strategic instruments, enabling tools and guidelines, the project seeks to foster knowledge dissemination and transfer across the coastal urbanisation corridor – contributing to the urgent need for creative approaches towards localisation and implementation of the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda in China and beyond.

The Urban Nexus project started out as a bottom-up initiative operating primarily at the city level. GIZ and ICLEI provide customized technical assistance to cities depending on the thematic focus of the cities’ nexus pilot projects. However, national, regional and provincial-level legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks are crucial determinants for local decision-making with regard to the nexus sectors. As such, ICLEI is facilitating national – regional – local dialogues as a means to clarify issues impeding the implementation of proposed nexus pilot projects. National-local dialogues help bridge the gap across levels of government particularly in the areas of water including wastewater, energy, and land use as well as cascading finance to the local level. Iteration and continued follow-ups between the two levels of government further strengthens vertical integration. ICLEI also utilizes its various international events to further promote the nexus approach including cross-sectoral cooperation within local governments and across levels of government.

Water should be a priority in the EU policies due to its importance for the economy, environment, and quality of life of the European citizens. ICLEI has created an alliance with 25 cities to prepare a framework for European cities with the objective of achieving a more coherent and thus more effective representation and visibility for water at the EU level. ICLEI aims to achieve this by supporting the implementation of the European Union water policy and the SDGs through sustainable water management at local level.

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 and tools that guide urban governance on the food-water-energy nexus, delivering innovative solutions to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss, while advancing development goals from food security to job creation across cities worldwide. The project assesses the changes in trade-offs of food-water-energy nexus (FWEN) in green and blue infrastructure (GBI) and their association with spatial planning and governance in eight cities using empirical cases. This will provide a better understanding of the barriers that hinder innovative and integrated FWEN approaches using GBI at different scales; and look for the common features of diverse interventions.

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 NATURE in 2018.ICLEI works on the estimation of GHG emissions related to the waste sector, in addition to providing data to subnational governments, so that they take ownership of the issue. Methodologies defined by the IPCC are applied. SEEG provides annual estimates and technical emission data for all Brazilian states.

Through the project, ICLEI will support 20 cities, with emission inventories, targets and guidelines for mitigation. It includes preparation of an inventory of GHG emissions and atmospheric pollutants; future emission scenarios for 5, 10, 20 and 40 years, with reduction targets; institutional implementation strategies and inventory review mechanisms; and training of RMC technicians in the GPC methodology to allow the initiative to be internally replicated in the inventory review processes.

ICLEI provides capacity building to target cities in implementing low emission development strategies as well as mainstreaming science-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in local development processes.

The project utilizes the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) Process toolkit, the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) in formulating the cities’ climate action and management plans, and USAID Clean Energy Emission Reduction (CLEER) Tool in assessing the cities’ vulnerabilities, risks, and emissions. Through these analyses, target cities will be able to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation principles in their local development plans.

ICLEI is responsible for project implementation in all four partner cities, including preparation of Climate Resilient City Action Plan for four Indian partner cities – Coimbatore, Rajkot, Siliguri and Udaipur – that addresses both climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation using ClimateResilientCities methodology; strengthening the capacities of cities to identify, plan and implement measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for enhancing resilience to climate change; implementation of quick win projects to showcase reduction of GHG emissions; identification and planning for bankable projects based on requirements of the cities for large scale implementation of climate resilience building activities; and peer learning and exchange. Measures developed as a result of this project are being integrated in municipal budget to mainstream climate resilience in city development.

ICLEI works with four Brazilian cities to develop an action plans to achieve emissions neutrality and climate resilience by 2050. This includes emissions inventories, scenario modeling, vulnerability analysis and adaptation actions, and the implementation of already consolidated tools, such as CIRIS (developed by C40).

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.

The African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum (ACCSF) draws together mayors and technical officers from the continent’s most prominent cities to provide a guiding light for how African cities must think about the future and lead sustainability efforts. It facilitates the exchange of knowledge and learning and provides a platform for exploring how to develop truly African solutions to African problems. The event marshals the collective power of capital cities to contribute to, and influence, the pan-African and global discourse on sustainability.

ICLEI, as the co-convener of the ACCSF, is responsible for the
content development and program design of the ACCSF. By hosting the annual event, which brings together mayors and city managers of African capital cities, ICLEI facilitates the exchange knowledge and information on potential interventions, opportunities and threats that influence the potential for economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.

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.

In order to increase effectiveness of the advocacy of local and regional governments at the global processes, ICLEI will improve internal strategic planning, networking, coordination and dissemination activities of the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments and its relations to UN member states and decision making bodies UN bodies.

In order to improve visibility and enhance recognition of, and mobilize support for its action and network, ICLEI enhances dialogue, collaboration and engagement in the UN system, with a specific focus on those related to its fields of its expertise such as the secretariat of the other multilateral environmental agreements, the UN Environment Management Group, Local2030 and UN SDG Knowledge Development Center, as well as regional and global processes outside the UN such as G7/G20, OBOR, BRICS or other regional initiatives.

In order to ensure that the work of the UN fits the mission of the new sustainable development agenda and align with the spirit of enhanced collaboration with all levels of governments, ICLEI provides active contributions to the work of the UN Secretary General in the UN development system reform and 2019 UN Climate Summit, including development of customized strategies at the national level.

Recognizing that cities play an important role in leading the way to achieve carbon neutrality in the second half of this century, namely the goals of the Paris Agreement, ICLEI supports cities and regions laying out their vision on a sustainable society in 2050. The declaration lays out a vision for cities leading up to 2050 and encourages cities around the world to join Kyoto in cultivating a culture of sustainable cities that is in balance with the local and global environment.