Human activities contribute a significant and growing proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the increased demand for energy and other services in urban areas – also driven by rapid population growth – exacerbating the climate challenge. There is an urgent need for actions that will substantially contribute to the Paris Agreements climate targets, to stay well below 1.5 Degrees Celsius.

Under the Urban-LEDS Phase II project funded by the European Commission, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and ICLEI are jointly implementing this project addressing integrated climate action in local governments and their cities. Using ICLEI’s GreenClimateCities process methodology, technical guidance and capacity development is provided to selected local governments, also mobilizing cities to commit to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), exploring access to financing and supporting multilevel governance to enable effective action.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF),The Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC) is a partnership and knowledge platform that promotes integrated solutions and cutting-edge support for cities seeking to improve their urban sustainability. ICLEI, together with WRI and C40, serve on the GPSC Resource Team. The Resource Team facilitates peer exchange and provides high-level technical assistance, capacity development and curated knowledge products to local and regional governments to advance sustainable, and integrated, urban development. The GPSC RT serves local and regional governments by implementing a needs assessment and offering peer exchange, delivering training and promotional events and webinars and creating new and curated knowledge products. By situating city-level implementation projects in a broad sustainability framework, ICLEI, as a member of the GPSC RT, offers a holistic approach to urban development.

ICLEI provides technical guidance by participating in GCoM’s technical working groups, which address mitigation and adaptation in specific data-related sub-groups, including Emissions and Targets; Climate Action Planning; Resilience; and Access to Energy. ICLEI also participates in non-data related groups, including Access to Finance; Governance and Regional Coherence; Research; and Communications.

ICLEI has a representative in each group and sub-group, submits written comments and attends calls and in-person meetings. The goal is to unify and centralize how data are reported, using which channels, and how is it communicated to global stakeholders. ICLEI also provides data revision towards GCoM requirements for ICLEI Members and network of cities.

The Transformative Actions Program (TAP) provides a framework for this by connecting transformative local climate projects with project preparation facilities (PPFs) and tools that improve project bankability. Projects in the pipeline are screened based on their transformative impact which ensures their enduring potential. ICLEI develops partnerships that connect the goals of diverse stakeholders into one coherent value chain for developing robust, transformative and bankable projects that will accelerate low-to-no emission and climate-resilient development. ICLEI regional offices act as catalysts for mobilizing projects and as the first “filter” to identify priority projects.