Since 2011 the ‘Municipal Climate Partnerships’ project has aimed to strengthen partnerships between municipalities in Germany and developing countries for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The fifth phase of the project involves partnerships between German municipalities and municipalities in the Philippines and Vietnam, such as the three between Filipino and German municipalities, namely Muñoz – Marburg, Dumangas – Herdecke and Lubang – Ebhausen.

Through a process of professional peer-to-peer dialogue and exchange of experiences, in conjunction with mutual visits by delegations of local government experts, the municipal actors from Germany and their counterparts develop a joint bilateral program of action for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Both municipalities will identify specific project activities to be implemented in the joint program of action, and the resources needed for this.

ICLEI provides support in implementing workshops, delegation visits, and advisory services. The delegation visits provide partner municipalities a peek of the realities on the ground. This will then be one of the basis in prioritizing projects and activities in their joint program of action. All project activities are conducted in close coordination with Engagement Global/SKEW.

Building upon ICLEI´s commitment to engage in the NDC Partnership and as the first associate member, ICLEI created a modular approach to addresses the vertical integration of NDC implementation and investment plans, outlining the contribution of local and regional governments in the NDCs. ICLEI’s participation is structured in four parts: coordinating a multilevel action working group (MAWG); knowledge products and tools; country engagement for developing Partnership Plans (PPs), working with countries wanting to join the NDCP; and project management and coordination with a range of partners.

ICLEI East Asia supported the Seoul Metropolitan Government in organizing the 9th Northeast Asia Forum on Air Quality Improvement as a co-organizer. The Forum was attended by officials of 35 local governments, including all EACAC cities except for Guiyang. On this occasion, Tokyo, Beijing, and Shenzhen introduced their policies on vehicle emissions reduction; Sichuan presented in the stationary emissions reduction section. ICLEI East Asia shared its experience of strengthening regional cooperation and collaboration through EACAC together with other city networks including C40, CCAC, and GUAPO.

Through collaboration on the OPCC, which is led by WWF, ICLEI aims to encourage the reporting of climate related data from local governments around the globe, and to improve the quality of the reported data.

In partnership with CDP, ICLEI provides CDP and ICLEI’s unified reporting system for the report of the data of OPCC participating cities.

ICLEI supports cities by checking their submitted data and by providing guidance. The OPCC acts as vehicle to raise ambition towards climate action globally, as well as to showcase the commitment from local and regional governments.

ICLEI supports Fiji cities by providing streamlined processes for assessing their risks and challenges and developing achievable action plans. It works side-by-side with the cities and assists them to find partners for action. ICLEI has recently assisted 7 city and town councils to undertake disaster risk self assessment and action planning, using the Sendai Framework and scorecards, and built capacity for disaster risk reduction at 2-day workshops with these cities. City staff and elected councilors now hav an understanding of how disasters and climate change impact all the city development challenges. The outcomes of the DRR workshops have been collated into a “Generic Fiji Local Government DRR Action Plan” and provided to the Ministry Local Government and the National Disaster Management Office as input for their current reviews of the Local Government Act and National Disaster Management Plan.

ICLEI worked with Toronto Public Health to carry out research on strategies being used in other jurisdictions to manage extreme heat in older apartment buildings that don’t have air conditioning. The research included both a literature review and interviews with cities in North America and Europe. Eight key strategies were identified for managing extreme heat in Toronto apartment buildings, including active cooling, weatherization and insulation, increasing air circulation, reducing solar gain through windows, increasing natural ventilation, cooling/green/reflective external surfaces, minimizing internal heat generation and cooling on-site within the building.

ICLEI is part of the cities group in charge of mapping out all related methodologies to – 1.5° C pathway; this includes the revision of Kaya Methodology for Carbon Stock allocation as well as other city related methodologies related to GHG emissions reduction SBT. A final report has been compiled which includes other organizations as part of the group such as C40,WRI, CDP, GCoM & WWF.

ICLEI staff reviewed one of the assigned methodologies and provided comments in regards of the following principles:

– The methodology should be up to date relative to latest science
– The methodology should be equitable
– The methodology should address all GHG´s and GHG´s sources (Completeness)
– The methodology should be user friendly

The outcome will be a recommendation to unify all crosscutting criteria into a holistic global set of recommendations which would be applicable to all sizes and types of cities. This also includes a landscape of methods and tools from specific hubs (Land; Ocean; Water; Biodiversity) related to cities.

ICLEI advances achievement of state and local sustainability goals by assisting California cities and counties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. The support is offered to any local government free of charge, and can be a light-touch (answering questions) to in-depth assistance (completion of an GHG inventory).

In addition to technical support, the program convenes an annual peer-exchange event, offers virtual training, and recognizes communities that hit milestones in clean energy and climate action. ICLEI’s GHG emissions management tool, ClearPath, has been adapted to meet California specific requirements and opportunities. The program makes the software tool available at no cost to all local governments statewide; provides technical support in the development of GHG inventories and climate action plans, and shares out best practices observed.

The Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals Estimates (SEEG) is an initiative of the Climate Observatory that includes the production of annual estimates of GHG emissions in Brazil, analytical documents on the evolution of emissions and a web portal to provide simple and clear system methods and data. The SEEG methodology was published in the journal NATURE in 2018.ICLEI works on the estimation of GHG emissions related to the waste sector, in addition to providing data to subnational governments, so that they take ownership of the issue. Methodologies defined by the IPCC are applied. SEEG provides annual estimates and technical emission data for all Brazilian states.

ICLEI provides detailed guidance and practice-oriented resources to technical staff through an open access, online, low emission development platform. The Solutions Gateway is an online resource platform for local and regional governments where they will be able to find relevant Low Emissions Development (LED) Solutions for their cities. The platform contains sectoral and cross-sectoral packages of activities, structured along local government responsibilities and spheres of influence, to support cities in the development of low-emission strategies, plans, and projects. The Solutions Gateway contents are based on proven technologies and practices, distilled into Solutions and Solution Packages which are drafted and peer-reviewed by experts of the respective field.