Getting to Paris: cities can lead fight to reduce emissions, Shenzhen forum told
While waiting for nations to ratify the climate change accord, the world’s metropolises can work together to reduce their carbon levels right now, says Paris Deputy Mayor Patrick Klugman
The world’s metropolises should act faster and go further than nation states in acting upon the Paris climate change deal – and more Chinese cities should join the global network of megacities committed to emission cuts, Paris’ deputy mayor said in Shenzhen on Thursday.
Cities are important because they can move quicker and go further than states
“Cities are important because they can move quicker and go further than states,” Patrick Klugman said on the sidelines of the Fourth Shenzhen International Low Carbon City Forum. Klugman said most signatory countries were still ratifying the pact, but major cities around the world should not wait. “For cities, it’s time for action, not celebration,” he said.
From China to London, Tokyo and Paris, cities are becoming greener by learning from each other
Under the accord, signed in Paris in December, 195 countries set their own emission reduction goals as part of a global effort to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the deal only comes into effect when at least 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions ratify it domestically.
France ratified the agreement on Wednesday, becoming the first major nation to do so, joining 17 small countries that represent less than 1 per cent of emissions combined.
Klugman said an 83-member network of the world’s megacities working to reduce emissions – the C40
Cities Climate Leadership Group – was “already making all the commitments of the Paris agreement real before 2020”, when the deal is supposed to kick in for states.
“What we are now doing in the frame of the C40 is taking the Paris agreement into action before it’s taken into action by the states,” he said.