Friday, 18 December 2009
Local governments demonstrate real capacity for change at the Climate Summit for Mayors, 14-17 December 2009
Reporting back from the final day of the Climate Summit for Mayors, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said cities have emerged as the constructive winners at Copenhagen.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle was in Copenhagen with 79 other world mayors at the summit, which ran alongside the negotiations at the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
“While national leaders argue over words at COP15 out at the Bella Centre, the world’s mayors in the centre of town at Copenhagen’s City Hall have been working on the practical projects that will make a difference in our cities,” Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said from Copenhagen.
“While it is important that local governments and cities are recognised in the COP15 agreement text, real actions are more important.
“Local governments can be ambitious, courageous and imaginative: if it’s a war against climate change, it will be won or lost in our cities.”
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle spoke alongside Vice Mayor of Berlin, Mayor of Toronto and Mayor of Seoul to present Melbourne’s internationally renowned case studies of energy efficient building initiatives. He also spoke at the University of Copenhagen with the Mayor of Copenhagen and Mayor of Vancouver to discuss the challenges facing cities, particularly around extreme weather events like Melbourne’s February heatwave.
At the UN Conference, Lord Mayor Doyle spoke in a session led by Lord Nicholas Stern and including Mayors of Mexico City, Seattle, New Delhi, Johannesburg and Nantes and the Chair of World Mayors, the former Mayor of Bonn, outlining how their cities could work with national governments to deliver real results in sustainability.
He also met with his world mayor counterparts - Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg; Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa; Mayor of Toronto, David Miller; Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson - to build profitable alliances based on information sharing.
The Lord Mayor said that these ongoing municipal alliances will facilitate action in cities and allow global mayors to adapt already successful models of sustainability into world class initiatives.
“Personal relationships are important in politics and following formal and informal meetings with my world colleagues, I will also bring back constructive initiatives for economic development, homelessness, city safety and public amenity.
“Melbourne has much to be proud of and other cities are learning from us just as we are learning from them.”
He added, “The key to success is realising that sustainability, liveability, economic prosperity and competitive advantage are strongly linked.
“I feel very proud of what Melbourne has achieved and what we have planned.
“We are leading and sharing with the world’s great cities.”
Further information is available at Copenhagen Climate Summit.