New guidance enables U.S. cities and counties to include forests and trees within their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting, a key activity to ensure representation of local forestry and land use consideration in climate action planning. Developed in partnership with the Woods Hole Research Center and World Resources Institute (WRI), and funded by Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Forest and Land Use Appendix to ICLEI’s U.S. Community Protocol for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions will help fill a critical gap in enabling communities to develop climate action related to land management at a local level.

ICLEI created a facilitated multi-month training and capacity building program; the “Cohort” to build local government capacity in climate, resilience, forestry, and equity. Each cohort is theme-based and includes up to 20 participant local governments, some of whom are supported by university student externs. Cohort participants are supported by ICLEI USA technical advisors, the ICLEI USA online learning platform, recorded training content, and one-on-one support as needed. Topics have included the GHG net-zero building strategies, GHG inventories as a first step toward identifying a reduction target and priority strategies to reduce emissions; integrated climate action and resilience plans, and equitable community engagement. Cohort partners have included the Global Covenant of Mayors, Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, Mountain Towns 2030, California Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative, the University of Northern Iowa, and the State of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

In 2011 ICLEI Africa launched the inaugral Local Climate Solutions for Africa. It brings together key national, subnational, local government and private sector leaders from across Africa to discuss and explore collective solutions for addressing climate related challenges that threaten to derail sustainable development in Africa.

The 2020 theme “Financing for Change” will respond to the growing acknowledgement worldwide that to tackle climate change, city-scale finance must be mobilised. Local finance will give subnational actors access to the resources they need to harness the emission reduction potential in cities, and to respond effectively to climate change at the local level. Improved multi-level governance and increased finance flow to the local level will speed up implementation of current national and international climate change commitments.

•Conduct Sustainability Assessment of Existing Programs
•Develop Sustainability Baseline Assessment and Gaps
•Set Sustainability Goals
•Develop the Sustainability Plan
•Implement the Plan and Monitor Program
•Develop Sustainability Work Program Document
•Engage the Public, City Council, and Other Stakeholders

The module focused on practices, policies and innovations on sustainable water management at municipal level, particularly on city solutions to address rainfall extremes and water stress. ICLEI KCC delivered modules planning, coordinated with city speakers and promoted ICLEI Resilient Cities agenda.

The objective of the project is to analyze the development of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services concepts and practices in urban areas and better integrate them into the science and policy discussions that are taking place in the context of the preparation of CoP15. ICLEI´s focus on key Chinese actors since China is the host country of the CBD CoP 15, as well as on German, European, and other international actors who play a major role in the implementation of measures that promote urban biodiversity and ecosystem services at the local and sub-national level. The specific goal of the project is to provide an overview of the current scientific discourse and environmental policy processes and to raise awareness of the identified key actors through a series of consultation workshops taking place in Europe and in China.

ICLEI is convening a circular economy workshop to bring stakeholders and experts from African cities together. Through a combination of short presentations and interactive sessions, the workshop will (1) build shared understanding of the concepts of circular development, resource nexus and urban metabolism, as well as their application in urban African contexts; (2) familiarise participants with useful tools and portals for analysing city resource performance; (3) show evidence of these principles in action in Accra; (4) identify city needs related to urban resource management, and (5) collectively chart a way forward for building communities of practice around sustainable urban resource management in African cities.

ICLEI works in collaboration with FAO, ICLEI, RUAF and C40 to collectively promote and support subnational take-up and engagement regarding food policy and action in African cities, in line with global targets and ambitions articulated in SDG 2 and through initiatives such as the Milan Food Pact. This collaboration is also intended to build on the existing ICLEI-RUAF CITYFOOD Network and related initiatives of all the partners in Africa.

Local and regional governments can have a tremendous impact on city-region food systems, yet many decision makers are unaware of the leverage subnational governents have over their food systems. ICLEI highlights the role local and regional governments can play in improving sustainable and resilient food systems to raise awareness among key stakeholders and partners. ICLEI develops knowledge materials to advance understanding of, and to advocate for, sustainable food systems while promoting local government’s actions on this field.

ICLEI initiated this partnership to attract the attention of ambitious local governments in South Korea and give them a platform to share their efforts and accomplishments on the targets of Goal 11.

ICLEI is gathering the efforts of Local Governments in South Korea on implementing SDGs and delivering related projects to leverage the effectiveness of the dispersed efforts and actions by combining and reporting them on the UN SDGs Knowledge Platform. By focusing this initiative on Goal 11, ICLEI provides the map of the implementation of Goal 11 in South Korea, and highlights leading local governments to inspire others to join.