Procura+ is a network of European public authorities and regions that connect, exchange and act on sustainable and innovation procurement. The network has 45 participating public authorities from 16 European countries. ICLEI offers the Procura+ participants a range of activities and resources to advance their sustainable public procurement work, including recognition through the Procura+ Awards; a city twinning program to facilitate staff exchanges; a platform to share plans and publicize successes; education and professional development opportunities; and the Procura+ manual, an accessible guide supporting public authorities in successfully implementing sustainable public procurement.

The City Climate Planner program ensures urban professionals are equipped to support local climate action planning, including developing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories; climate action planning (low emission development planning); and climate adaptation planning. These efforts are essential building blocks of local planning and policy development efforts of local governments in addressing climate change.

The Urban Greenhouse Gas Inventory Specialist credential is City Climate Planner program’s first professional certification. It focuses on GHG emission inventories, recognized as a key building block in developing quality climate action plans. Over 20 professionals at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability are accredited to provide the training.

Recognizing that cities play an important role in leading the way to achieve carbon neutrality in the second half of this century, namely the goals of the Paris Agreement, ICLEI supports cities and regions laying out their vision on a sustainable society in 2050. The declaration lays out a vision for cities leading up to 2050 and encourages cities around the world to join Kyoto in cultivating a culture of sustainable cities that is in balance with the local and global environment.

The Global Climate City Challenge is part of a new partnership under the umbrella of Global Urbis, an ambitious global initiative announced during the One Planet Summit in Paris in December 2017, that provides cities and local governments around the world with technical assistance and financing for climate action. The Challenge is a collaboration between the Global Covenant of Mayors and the European Investment Bank with city networks including ICLEI and C40, as well as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). ICLEI screened project applications and proposed an initial short list of 20 projects to be considered for the final list of 6 to access technical assistance. The frontrunners were announced at the COP25, out of which 2 ICLEI Transformative Actions Program projects were selected in Recife, Brazil and in Jambi City, Indonesia.

ICLEI can help raise ambition and connect cities, towns, and regions who are seeking to solve the problems of climate change. The GreenClimateCities (GCC) Program offers cities a proven process methodology for walking step-by-step toward climate neutrality.The GCC program supports local communities on the front lines addressing the challenges and opportunities of urban growth, exploring the potential of green economy and green/blue infrastructure and pursuing a low emission and climate resilient development trajectory. The GCC methodology is a nine step process offering support on assessing climate risks and vulnerabilities and integrating low-to-no emissions development and climate adaptive development) into urban development policies, plans, and processes. It consists of a wide range of resources, tools and guidance notes to support local and regional governments to deliver ambitious local climate action.

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 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.

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.

Starting in 2019, local and regional governments are – for the first time – reporting climate action data through one unified reporting system. They give their permission to both CDP and ICLEI to use their publicly reported data and receive in return the support of both organizations. ICLEI uses this data to inform research and analysis activities focusing on diverse sectors from transport to waste, energy and air quality, and to represent local and regional governments on the global stage through our advocacy work. ICLEI supports local and regional governments to improve the quality of their reporting and provides performance reports to selected cities.

Responding to the Fijian COP23 Presidency call, in its capacity as focal point of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) constituency at the UNFCCC, ICLEI worked with UN-Habitat and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy to mobilize Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues in 2018. The aim was to enable discussion between different levels of government on scaling up climate action.