In order to access the video, you must create an account on Daringcities.org or log-in.
Cities are considered one of the most important players to tackle climate change. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) not only most of the global population lives in urban areas, but also urban areas are responsible for the highest Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, accounting for 70% of the total global emissions. Therefore, emission reduction potential in cities is also high when key GHG emitting sectors such as transportation, waste and industry are identified, enabling a localized climate action and policy development at urban level.
Local climate action through adaptation and mitigation strategies is necessary for tackling climate change, as cities can act alongside regional governments helping national governments to push for more ambitious emission reductions targets and adaptation goals aligned to their NDCs. In this context, collecting, aggregating and analyzing local climate data across all sectors, such as stationary energy (e.g. residential sector, commercial buildings, etc) waste, and transport emissions in a city, represent the baseline to assess, implement and monitor local climate plans.
This session outlines the importance of data reporting for aggregation and analysis to track the local climate action towards the achievement of the national and international commitments for addressing climate change. It showcases the value of having robust climate data and knowledge available to support decision-makers in climate planning. Having clean measurable and comparable data could support the development of strategies and policies to increase the ambition towards emission reduction targets, thus helping governments track the achievements of their NDC goals. The CDP – ICLEI Unified Reporting System constitutes a valuable solution for local governments to report their climate data to track their climate action progress.
The sessionl also highlights how current technology and IT platforms like Google can support local governments’ climate action planning by making data accessible and publicly available to measure and track their GHG emissions’ reductions. Google’s Environmental Insights Explorer tool (EIE) is being developed to estimate climate data through its modelling capabilities aiming to make climate data available and easily accessible to the public.
Outcomes:
- Learn about the CDP – ICLEI Unified Reporting System and the importance of reporting robust climate data to enhance effective local climate action.
- Develop an overview of the number of cities and local governments reporting climate data and committed to track their climate actions in the GCoM.
- Learn about EIE, a paramount IT tool developed by Google to estimate cities’ emissions
- Cities showcase their experience on reporting climate action data and the associated benefits they had foreseen for local action.
Facilitator:
- Tabare Curras, Technical Lead WWF Cities, WWF
Keynote speaker:
- Nicole Lombardo, Business Development & Partnerships, Environmental Insights – Google – EIE Explorer tool
Panelists:
- Cesar Carreño, Head of Climate Data, ICLEI World Secretariat, Germany
- Dr. Shannon McDaniel, Director of Data Strategy, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
- Sonia Knauer, Municipal Secretary of Environment, City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil