Cities pledge zero emissions by 2050
Mayors representing 25 cities, home to a total of 150 million citizens, have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. The cities will also adopt measures to become more resilient to climate change. The plans, which will be developed in partnership with the C40 Cities network, will be in place by 2020. Separately, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy said their pledges would reduce carbon emissions by 1.3 billion tonnes per year by 2030. The Covenant also launched a new global standard for monitoring and reporting urban emissions, to be implemented from 2018.
The mayors of 25 pioneering cities, representing 150 million citizens, have pledged to develop and begin implementing more ambitious climate action plans before the end of 2020 to deliver emissions neutral and climate resilient cities by 2050. These plans will ensure the cities deliver on their share of emissions reductions required to realise the ambition of the Paris Agreement.

In concrete terms, these climate action plans, developed with the support of C40 Cities, will help the world’s largest cities cut their emissions steeply over the next decade, and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The plans will also demonstrate how each city will adapt and improve its resilience to climate-related crises and extreme weather events. Finally, the plans will detail the wider social, environmental and economic benefits for all citizens, of taking climate action.

The C40 member cities that have made this pioneering commitment, are: Austin, Accra, Barcelona, Boston, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Caracas, Copenhagen, Durban, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, New York City, Oslo, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Santiago, Stockholm & Vancouver.

In delivering the Deadline 2020 programme C40 will be working in collaboration with other leading city initiatives such as The Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance to achieve long-term emission reduction goals across more cities.

C40 Cities today also announced that they will provide direct support to nine African megacities in developing unprecedented, robust and evidence-based long-term climate action plans that align with the goals of the Paris Agreement. This project (Cities Matter: Capacity building in sub-Saharan African megacities for transformational climate change mitigation) is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.

The cities supported through this initiative are: Accra, Cape Town, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi and Tshwane.

“The Paris Agreement is very clear on what needs to happen to take courageous climate action,” said Mayor of Paris and C40 Chair, Anne Hidalgo. “Mayors of the world’s great cities are shaping the century ahead and paving the way for a better, healthier and greener future. Mayors do what they must do, not what they can, and these plans and policies are an excellent example of our state of mind. With the support of key partners, like BMUB and C40, African cities are playing a leading and decisive role in delivering on the ambition of the Paris Agreement.”

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