Because the world prepares to collect in Brazil for COP30, the stakes for the local weather couldn’t be larger. Final yr wasn’t simply the warmest yr on file; it was the primary time that international temperatures have been 1.5 levels above pre-industrial ranges.
Over the previous decade, metropolis management has moved from the sidelines to the centre of the worldwide local weather response. What started in Paris in 2015, when cities have been first recognised as indispensable companions in delivering the Paris Settlement, continues this yr in Brazil as lots of of mayors be a part of governors and regional leaders for the C40 World Mayors Summit – a part of COP30’s Native Leaders Discussion board.
C40 Cities is a gaggle of almost 100 of the world’s largest cities united in tackling the local weather disaster in a simply and equitable manner. These residing and dealing in C40 cities—over 900m folks—account for nearly half of worldwide GDP.
This isn’t the standard C40 gathering. It marks a historic second: mayors will come collectively alongside different subnational and nationwide leaders, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the political management of Brazil, to showcase confirmed outcomes and the form of urgency that’s too usually lacking on the worldwide stage.
The scenario we discover ourselves in couldn’t be extra severe, but some leaders are nonetheless refusing to hear. Some are rejecting the science outright or spreading falsehoods to distract us from the necessity for motion. Others settle for the information, however merely aren’t ready to vary their methods, selecting as an alternative to chain us to soiled and harmful fossil fuels. Final yr, international coal consumption reached file ranges.
Confronted with the denial and delay, it’s all too straightforward to despair. In Brazil, although, international mayors are taking a stand. On this disaster, we see a possibility: to construct a brand new coalition of leaders – from mayors by way of to heads of state – who’re ready to do what it takes to guard the folks we serve and the planet we share.
If that coalition is to succeed, the world’s cities may have a pivotal half to play. From heatwaves and wildfires to floods and rising meals costs, cities are on the entrance traces of the local weather disaster. Residence to greater than half of the world’s inhabitants and accounting for 3 quarters of its power use, their dimension additionally offers their leaders the ability to drive ahead far-reaching international change. In Brazil, we’re prepared to make use of it.
Within the final 25 years, it’s mayors which were getting on with the job, delivering daring, formidable insurance policies that make a distinction. In London, the world’s largest clear air zone has introduced ranges of poisonous nitrogen dioxide inside authorized limits – almost 200 years earlier than the consultants mentioned we might. In Rio, a Speedy Bus Transit system has slashed emissions whereas connecting lots of of hundreds of passengers to jobs, faculties, and important providers every single day. By initiatives like Breathe Cities – which each of our cities take part in – we’re becoming a member of forces with leaders throughout the globe to ship formidable new air high quality insurance policies, velocity up decarbonisation, and construct extra sustainable, habitable cities.
World wide, a refrain of sceptics are claiming that efforts to fight the local weather emergency will weaken our economies and make our folks poorer. These insurance policies are proof that they couldn’t be extra flawed. Combating local weather change isn’t simply good for the planet; it’s an opportunity to bolster our economies with inexperienced industries and safe, well-paid jobs for working folks; to carry down payments with clear power and save lives by defending folks from hovering temperatures and poisonous air. In different phrases, this can be a once-in-a-generation alternative to construct a greener, fairer, and extra affluent world. We should seize it.
C40 was based twenty years in the past as a gaggle of cities devoted to doing simply that. We believed that the sheer scale of the local weather emergency demanded a unique form of international response – a response that refused to recognise borders as limits on our ambition. Since then, we’ve pioneered a brand new mannequin for collaboration rooted not in negotiation, however in motion. Because of the sensible, in style insurance policies we’ve applied there at the moment are greater than 21 million good inexperienced jobs throughout 81 C40 cities – proof that we’re on monitor to satisfy our goal of fifty million by the top of 2030.
They are saying optimism is infectious. Maybe that’s why, in Brazil, C40 will play an even bigger position on the worldwide stage than it ever has earlier than. On the COP30 Native Leaders Discussion board, hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies and COP30 Presidency, our purpose is straightforward. Quite than imprecise commitments and summary ambitions, we’ll be demonstrating actual outcomes. By sharing what we’ve delivered and what we all know works, we’ll set out a practical path to assembly our local weather objectives – a path that gives folks hope for a greater future, quite than concern for the world that future generations will inherit.
For much too lengthy, local weather negotiations have moved on the tempo of the slowest member, and our folks have paid the worth. Confronted with indicators of local weather breakdown throughout us, it’s clear that the best way we work collectively has received to vary. In Brazil, it should. Trying again in a long time to return, we consider that this yr’s COP will mark a turning level: a second when the world recognised that the price of collective inaction is way larger than the price of dropping a number of leaders alongside the best way. The time has come for a brand new form of coalition – one which is able to transfer additional and sooner than ever earlier than. The world’s cities stand able to rise to the problem and be a part of that important cost.