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.

With the main topic 'Urban Sustainability' the ETC-ULS Action plan 2020 forsees the following tasks for ICLEI:
Support for the finalisation and publication of a study
Supporting integrated urban sustainability management:
– Finalisation of the publication of Urban SDG indicatiors
– Distilling good practice examples that illustrate innovative governance approaches of cities and urban areas to implement the SDGs.
Stakeholder meeting.

A select group of approximately 15 Australian local governments is being invited to join a Pioneer Group. This group will register on the CWN global website and will then participate in a needs assessment conducted jointly by ICLEI Oceania and Swinburne University. The results will be used to develop a tailored package of resources and activities, targetting the highest needs of Australian local governments. The Pioneer initiative will take approximately 12 months and include several webinars and a national forum at the end of the year to report on the outcomes of COP15. This last step may of course be delayed due to the COVID.

>> 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’.

ICLEI analyzes participating cities’ policies and existing initiatives, maps and engages with stakeholders in the food system, and identifies opportunities and barriers. As the project outcome, ICLEI will publish a report to demonstrate the initiatives taken by cities in East Asia, to develop narratives of the circular food system, as well as providing policy guidance and suggestions.

ICLEI will carry out desk-based research, interviews, discussion workshops, and generate case studies in investigating the activities that have been taken by cities, and further explore the potential for improving circularity. East Asia local governments participating in the project, will be provided with systems thinking to review the initiatives taken in their food systems and further optimize them. They will also be engaged in discussions with stakeholders across the value chain to better understand the barriers and potentials of implementing circular economy approach and strategies in the food system.

ICLEI KO is connecting this national & local event with global issues and trends. KO helps the co-organizer and hosting city see and know what front-running country and cities are doing at similar events and efforts. SDGs Studio that was introduced in the Global SDGs Festival took place in Bonn in May 2019 was replicated at KFSD. KO’s role is bringing new ideas and innovation from global society to this festival that has been long-lasting since 1999.

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.

In nearly three decades of work, ICLEI has developed, tested and scaled up methodologies to guide the way towards sustainable urban development at the local level. This rich experience accumulated allows us to apply a common framework for our global projects and initiatives, which currently follows the stages: analysis, action and acceleration, and in each one follows a step-by-step guideline. This track can be applied to a variety of themes – from low emission to nature-based development – and promotes a cyclical path that allows the continuous improvement of the governments in our Network. This year’s “Cities + Sustainable – ICLEI South America Solutions Portfolio” highlights the following opportunities and initiatives ICLEI provides cities and regions in South America.

The objective of the Forum is to create a regional platform of municipal governments, specifically through its Planning or Development Secretaries, to promote the exchange of knowledge, practices and models of sustainable development between Amazonian subnational governments and the subsequent dissemination of experiences at regional level. The network acts as a cooperation mechanism to position Amazonian cities as global references for sustainable urban development in a context of tropical forests, in which managers collaborate mutually in the implementation of monitoring measures and efforts to reach the SDGs. ICLEI is responsible for (i) the identification of potential cities for involvement with the network in the first year, (ii) the definition and implementation of connection and exchange mechanisms for the group, for permanent dialogue and mobilization with members, and for (iii) regional meetings to build an agenda for cooperation between local governments, the active exchange of experiences and the position of cities as drivers of sustainable urban development.

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