23 September 2014: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the launch of the global Compact of Mayors, the largest effort to date by cities to fight climate change.

Mayors from cities around the globe announced an expansion of their commitments to scale up climate resilience efforts, energy efficiency programmes and resilient financing mechanisms, including through an initiative to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 454 megatons by 2020. The Compact of Mayors is a partnership of city organization whose combined reach is approximately 2000 cities.

Bloomberg said that countries must partner with cities now as they create more ambitious climate targets over the next year. The carbon Cities Climate Registry, the designated central repository of the Compact of Mayors, will provide the platform for city climate data.

Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, Republic of Korea, underlined that announcements made during the UN Climate Change Summit, including the Compact of Mayors and its standardized reporting process and public data portal, emerged from an unprecedented collaboration among city networks.

Other announcements include the City Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, which was launched by approximately 20 public and private sector partners to generate trillions of dollars for investments in low-carbon and climate-resistant infrastructure. UN-Habitat Executive Director Joan Clos stressed that this increased capital flow to cities will enable the transformational change required to meet the climate challenge and contribute to “the new urban agenda of cleaner, more resilient and environmentally sustainable cities.”

In addition, the City Creditworthiness Partnership, a joint effort between the World Bank and its partners, will help 300 cities strengthen their creditworthiness to attract investors, enabling cities to improve their financial management, thereby increasing their private capital access.

Key Compact partners include the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), with support from UN-Habitat. [UN Press Release] [The Compact of Mayors Website] [Compact of Mayors Action Statement] [C40 Cities Press Release]