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World Mayor publishes first list
of candidates for the 2010 Prize
London, 13 January 2010: World Mayor has published an initial list of mayors to be considered for the 2010 Prize. Among the candidates are some well-known personalities such as the mayors of Mexico City, London, Boston and Karachi. But the list also includes several city leaders from smaller communities, among them Newark (USA), Chania (Greece), Doncaster (UK), Ulm (Germany), Puente Alto (Chile) and New Plymouth (New Zealand).

The organisers of World Mayor 2010 say the nomination stage of this year’s Project will be open until April and that further names will be added to list of candidates. A spokesman for World Mayor also revealed that the shortlist of finalists would be published in May. “As in previous years, members of the public will then be invited to comment on the merits of the finalists for the 2010 World Mayor Prize,” he explained.

The World Mayor Prize, first awarded in in 2004, honours mayors who have delivered exceptional benefits to their communities and developed an understanding for the problems faced by cities worldwide. Previous winners are the mayors of Tirana (2004), Athens (2005), Melbourne (2006) and Cape Town (2008).

Mexico City Mayor to head
watchdog on climate change
Copenhagen, 18 December 2009: Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has been appointed Chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change. Ebrard succeeds Bärbel Dieckmann, former Mayor of Bonn, Germany. The World Mayors Council on Climate Change is an alliance of municipal leaders committed to climate protection, biodiversity and sustainable development. There are currently more than 30 members of the Council, representing a vast network of local governments working to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

"While world leaders continue to debate climate solutions, with an uncertain outcome for agreement, the mayors of the world are taking bold action," said Mayor Ebrard. "This week, numerous cities have demonstrated that we are already implementing innovative solutions, and committing significant resources of both intellectual and financial capital to address the critical problem of climate change."

Mayor Ebrard continued, "The Council's mission for the year ahead is to build on this foundation and provide enhanced support to municipal governments in their efforts to address climate change and related issues of global sustainability."

As a leader in climate action, Mexico City is investing more than $1 billion a year on environmental-related infrastructure and implementing sustainable environmental programs and practices. Mexico City's Climate Action Plan, launched by Mayor Ebrard, aims to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 7 million tons between 2008 and 2012. The 15-year plan is designed to reduce transportation-related emissions; conserve public lands through major reforestation projects; encourage businesses to adopt sustainable environmental practices; invest in critical environmental infrastructure such as water management systems and recycling centers; and implement reforms regarding the disposal of solid waste.

Mayors from 80 cities
push for climate pact
Copenhagen, 16 December 2009: Mayors from more than 80 cities attended the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Their message was that while national leaders were arguing about reducing gas CO2 emissions, cities were already doing it. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said cities recognised the importance of national and international leadership on climate change. “But we can’t wait for national governments to act first and they can’t solve the problem on their own. As city governments, we too have an obligation to confront climate change,” Bloomberg added.

Cities represented in Copenhagen by their mayors include: Addis Ababa, Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Basel, Bordeaux, Bristol, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calgary, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dhaka, Entebbe, Florence, Freiburg, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Ho Chi Minh City, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kyoto, London, Los Angeles, Lyon, Manchester, Manila, Marseille, Mexico City, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Nairobi, New York City, Oslo, Paris, Riga, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Seattle, Sydney, Tehran, Toronto and Zurich.

Cities call on governments
to act on climate change
Hamburg, 20 November 2009: Representatives from 22 cities have committed themselves to a low-carbon future. At the City Climate Conference held earlier this week in Hamburg, they declared that combating climate change was all about cities. Prior to next month’s UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, cities also called on governments to adopt meaningful regulations, which would lead to a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.

The cities represented, which included Abu Dhabi, Amman, Amsterdam,Barcelona, Chicago, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Gdansk, Genoa, Göteborg, Helsinki, Kaliningrad, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lausanne, Marseille, Milos, Moscow, Munich, Nantes, San Francisco, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Valencia, Vienna and Warsaw, presented facts about cities in the face of climate change, signed up to several commitments and called for support from governments and international organisations.

Many delegates stressed that cities should act as role models. The conference’s final declaration said that city administrations would become a role model in public procurement. Cities also want citizens to become more involved in green urban planning. The declaration promises that cities will actively involve their citizens in ‘planning and implementation of climate action programmes’ and motivate them to make a contribution by their action to combating climate change.

Obama invited to visit
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Tokyo, 29 October 2009: The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tadatoshi Akiba and Tomihisa Taue, went to the American Embassy in Tokyo to formally invite President Obama to their cities when he visits Japan next month. While no sitting US president had visited the cities, which were destroyed by America nuclear bombs at the end of World War II, the mayors countered no sitting US president had been the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize either. “Next month’s official visit to Japan offers the President a unique opportunity to add momentum to his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.”

John Einarsen, a Vietnam War veteran writing in the Japan Times, said Obama had stated, political will and support for a nuclear-free world first required imagination. “An address from Hiroshima would be bold, historic and compelling.”

In a speech in Prague earlier this year, Barack Obama said one nuclear weapon exploding in one city - be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague - could kill hundreds of thousands of people. “No matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be for our global safety, our security, our society, our economy, to our ultimate survival,” the President warned.

The White House has not yet replied to the invitation from the mayors but a press spokesman said the President’s Japanese schedule was very ‘tight’.

World urban population
to increase to five billion
Geneva, 10 October 2009: More than two thirds of the world’s population – around five billion people - will live in cities by 2030, with 90 per cent of the increase in urbanisation taking place in developing countries, in particular in Asia and in emerging economies.

UN Habitat says there are at least 40 mega-cities with populations of 10 million or more, and that number is growing. It warns this is likely to be a recipe for disaster unless the needs of the urban poor are taken into account.

Senior Policy Advisor for UN Habitat in Geneva, George Deikun, says by 2030, more than three billion people or about 40 per cent of the world's population will need housing and basic urban infrastructure and services. "So, 1.6 billion people or about 25 per cent of the world's population is living in slums, with some of the worst manifestations of poverty, deprivation and exclusion," Deikun said. "And, over 60 per cent of people in African cities, Africa is about 40 per cent urbanized, so 60 per cent of the 40 per cent or a quarter of all of Africa are living in slums. So, our belief is that the current approaches to planning must change to insure that planning contributes to sustainable urban development." 

UN Habitat warns slums and informal settlements will grow as internally displaced people and refugees head for the cities. The agency says this will create competition for limited shelter, land, water, jobs, health and food. It notes this could lead to increased social tensions and violence between migrants and host populations.

Deikun says slums also have an increased vulnerability to natural disasters and complex emergencies. "The loss of life and livelihoods due to cyclones, hurricanes, flooding among the urban poor, is, we think disproportionately higher because they live in higher risk areas," Deikun said. "Informal settlements are usually underserved with sanitation infrastructure. The structures that people live in and work in are not safe. There is a lack of water, sanitation and other basic services."  (Report by Lisa Schlein, VoA News)

London and New York City
challenged by Asian centres
London, 23 September 2009: The position of London and New York as the world’s two dominant financial centres is being challenged by Asian cities. While London and New York remain number one and two respectively, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shenzhen are catching up fast. In the latest Financial Centres Index, devised by the Z/Yen Group and commissioned by the City of London, Asian cities are closing the gap to world’s traditional centres of banking, the exception being Dubai, which has lost some of the dynamism recorded in previous years.

The authors of the report expressed their surprise at the strong performance of Asian cities, particularly those in China, including Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. City Mayors was told that the speed and size of the surge came as a surprise. “An in-depth study of Chinese centres is needed to see what factors are driving this trend,” the authors recommend.

According to the Index, the competition for increased market share in financial markets is not between London and New York, whose relationship is mutually supportive, but between centres in Europe and North America in one corner and cities in Asia in the other. While Z/Yen calls for more in-depth analysis, other experts have pointed out that the financial services offered by London and New York can easily be transferred to Asia. “London’s credibility has suffered following the 2008 financial crisis,” City Mayors was told. Further reading

Cities ready for battle
against global warming
Seoul, 20 May 2009: Former US President Bill Clinton called on the world’s cities to lead the battle against global warming. Addressing mayors at the C40 conference in Seoul, he said it was possible for economies to grow without emitting more and more greenhouse gases. "We know that if we don't reduce greenhouse gases by somewhere in the range of 80 per cent by 2050, bad things are going to happen," he warned. The C40 conference is a biennial event, organised by the C40 group of cities with its secretariat in London. The current chairman is Toronto’s mayor David Miller. The first conference was held in London in 2005, followed by the 2007 C40 meeting in New York.

Bill Clinton, quoting from UN statistics, said cities occupied just two per cent of the world's land mass yet are responsible for more than two-thirds of global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. “The issue of how cities find a way to continue to thrive and prosper while reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the central questions in the whole struggle," he explained.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who travelled to Seoul to attend the meeting, told reporters that America’s former president had praised the re-development of Elephant and Castle, a shopping centre and social housing estate in South London. The re-development of the centre, built in the 1960s, was cited by the William J Clinton Foundation among 16 worldwide projects, which will release less carbon dioxide than they use.

Also among the 16 projects is Destiny, Florida, America's first eco-sustainable city. The city will support the development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate cities can grow in ways that are climate positive. Climate positive real estate developments will strive to reduce the amount of on-site CO2 emissions to below zero.

In his address to the conference, Mayor Johnson pledged to make London the electric car capital of Europe by achieving at least 100,000 electric vehicles on the city’s streets as soon as possible. The Mayor said car manufacturers were already gearing up to make electric vehicles a common choice for consumers in just a few years' time. “City leaders across the world must rise to the challenge of creating the right conditions to support their usage in our urban centres. The move to electric vehicles, which emit zero pollution on to our city streets, will have a massive impact on cutting carbon emissions to curb climate change whilst improving air quality and noise levels for our citizens,” Johnson added.

Other cities with ambitious plans to reduce green house gas emission include Copenhagen and Los Angeles. Copenhagen has set itself the ambitious target of becoming, by 2025, the world’s first CO2 neutral capital city. Within just 16 years, Copenhagen’s total contribution to CO2 emissions is to be reduced to zero. The aim is for Copenhagen’s streets to be humming with electric and hydrogen-powered cars, which park for free and recharge on street corners. The City of Copenhagen is making a substantial investment in a wind turbine project, which will allow citizens to invest in green energy and, by using biomass, the energy from power stations will be CO2 neutral.

With the help of the Clinton Climate Initiative, Los Angeles will invest in the largest LED (light-emitting diode) green street light program ever undertaken by a city, which will reduce CO2 emissions by 40,500 tons and save $10 million annually. "With the green street light program, we are lighting the way to a greener LA," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "Reducing LA’s contribution to global warming will bring multiple benefits to Angelenos; we’ll save money on energy costs and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."

Chicago media attacks Tokyo’s
bid for 2016 Summer Olympics
Tokyo, 22 April 2009: Tensions have emerged between rival candidate cities for the 2016 Olympic Games after the International Olympic Committee’s assessment visit to Tokyo, which concluded last weekend. While the visit received a glowing write-up in the Japanese press, a number of Chicago-based media have attacked Tokyo’s bid as having a “governor problem”, a reference to past nationalistic remarks by city leader Shintaro Ishihara. The governor’s on-record remarks about China and Korea could potentially cost the city votes when the IOC meets to make a final decision in October.

The poor state of relations between the combative Ishihara and neighbouring Asian countries were referred to by western journalists at the opening press conference during the IOC’s four day visit. The 2016 bid campaign was forced to release a statement to refute any allegations of bias against Japan’s neighbours: “Governor Ishihara is deeply committed to the long-term benefits of the Olympic Games. This includes the principles of peace, harmony and friendship through the region.” However, while Tokyo remains the frontrunner to host the 2016 games, Chicagoan journalists sought to portray the decision of the bid team to place the governor at the forefront of its efforts as poorly-judged. In its presentation to IOC visitors recently, Chicago’s mayor Richard Daley underscored his city’s “diversity”, which was interpreted as a coded swipe at the frontrunner’s main limitation.

Overseas employees favour
Singapore and Copenhagen
London, 14 March 2009: Asian overseas workers consider Singapore to be the most liveable city for the tenth year running, whereas their European counterparts strongly rate Copenhagen, according to an annual survey of company worker attitudes. The study by relocation consultants ECA International saw strong showings from Sydney and Yokohama in the Asia section, while both Brussels and Antwerp emerged as joint European favourites.
 
The survey assesses 400 cities across the world in terms of climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation, social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tensions. These results are calculated on the basis of hardship for employees to relocate to the cities ranked. This is intended to allow businesses to weigh up the costs and disadvantages of relocating their offices globally.
 
Understandably, Baghdad remains the lowest ranked city, followed by Kabul and Port-au-Prince. The survey also ranks cities by preference in terms of Asian and European cities. As such, it considers both European preferences for Asian and European cities, and vice versa.
 
In terms of Europeans’ preferences, Copenhagen remains the city considered to offer the best quality of life, followed by Antwerp, Brussels, Bern, Basel, Geneva, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Luxemburg. Eastern European cities such as Ljubljana, Zagreb and Tallinn have risen up the table as they improve their offer to residents, while London, Rome and Paris were criticised over poor air quality.
 
European workers also backed Singapore as the best place in Asia to live, owing to its safe and clean environment, followed by Kobe and Yokohama in Japan. While Tokyo and Seoul remain in the top 10, Chinese cities featured in the lower reaches of the top 20. The only exceptions here were Hong Kong and Taipei.
 
ECA International’s Lee Quane suggested that the European cities’ high ranking among European workers compared to Asia was simply owing to familiarity: “This ranking has been done on an Asian base but change that to a European base and Copenhagen would be in the number one spot – it’s closer to home and culturally more similar for Europeans than Singapore so it would be easier for them to adapt to life there.”

More than 1000 cities
to switch off their lights
12 March 2009: With over two weeks still to go before Earth Hour 2009, the number of cities and towns signing up to switch off their lights at 8.30pm on 28 March has already exceeded the target of 1,000 set by Earth Hour organisers. Currently 1,189 cities and towns across 80 countries are committed, with more coming on board every day.

From the Chatham Islands to the Arctic Sea, people from all corners of the world will turn off their lights for Earth Hour to cast their vote for action on climate change. The historic event will see millions of people gathered in parks, streets, town squares and homes around the world to witness the lights going out on iconic landmarks and city skylines, while taking in the atmosphere of some truly unique Earth Hour events.

In Sydney, where Earth Hour began in 2007, every ferry in the city’s famous harbour will sound its horn at precisely 8.30pm to herald the beginning of Earth Hour in Australia, while in Melbourne a people-pedal-powered concert will be underway at Federation Square.

On the other side of the world, arrangements will be underway for a host of concerts and parties in cities across Europe, including a ‘circle of percussion’ in Athens, where people will be given percussion instruments to play, led by a conductor, as the lights go out on the Acropolis. In Oslo’s city centre, members of the public will take up the challenge of peddle-powered light bulbs, while residents in the city of Lisbon will sit down to an evening of outdoor candle-lit dining as they watch their city skyline go dark.

Earth Hour Executive Director, Mr Andy Ridley, says Earth Hour is more than just a call to action on climate change. “Earth Hour is an opportunity for the global community to speak in one voice on the issue of climate change, while at the same time coming together in celebration of the one thing every single person on the planet has in common – the planet,” he said.

Urban areas at risk
from overheating
Tokyo, 24 October 2008: At the Tokyo Conference for Climate Change, representatives from the so-called C40 cities warned that crowded urban areas were particularly susceptible to the Planet’s rising temperatures. The group of cities, whose members include Berlin, Beijing, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Sao Paulo, New York and Toronto, pledged to fight climate change by taking measures ranging from promoting renewable energy to introducing new building regulations designed to reduce the consumption of natural resources including water.

David Miller, Toronto Mayor and Chairman of the C40 group, said that city mayors from around the world were every day taking important actions to reduce energy consumption and the carbon emission. "The focus of the Tokyo conference is on measures that support adapting to climate change that is already occurring," the mayor from Canada added.

Members from the C40 group put forward ideas to prevent the "urban heat island effect," in which temperatures tend to rise in crowded metropolitan areas. The ideas include expanding green space in urban areas and building corridors to allow more wind and water to come into cities. The city planners also pledged to look into renewable energies such as solar power and to introduce water retentive pavements. The widespread use of concrete is a key reason that cities absorb heat more than rural areas.

The C40 group is an initiative started by former London Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2005. Then representatives from 18 cities met in London to discuss joining forces to tackle global warming and climate change. In August 2006, the initiative was strengthened when former President Clinton and Ken Livingstone announced a partnership between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group. This new partnership pledged to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in large cities across the world.

Mayors from world’s largest
cities congregate in Sydney
Sydney, 20 October 2008: More than 20 mayors and governors from the world’s major cities and senior representatives from over 80 cities will participate in the 9th World Congress of Metropolis, to be hosted by the New South Wales Government and be held in Sydney this week, 22-25 October. Key issues to be explored throughout the four day Congress program include climate change, urban renewal, financing public infrastructure and services and city leadership.

Big city mayors attending include mayor of Seoul Mr Oh Se-Hoon, mayor of Mumbai Dr Shubha Raul, mayor of Helsinki Mr Jussi Pajunen and mayor of Sydney Clover Moore. In addition some 1,000 delegates are expected to attend Metropolis Congress 2008 and satellite events - city mayors, technical heads of planning, architecture, transport and sustainability, industry leaders and academics - to discuss and plan for the future of the world’s largest cities.

Established in 1984, the Metropolis Association is represented by 87 member cities across the world and operates as an international forum for exploring issues and concerns common to cities with populations of more than one million.

Its main objective is to increasingly improve the development process of the leading metropolitan areas, in order to enhance the well-being of all citizens. Metropolis is an organisation representing regions and metropolitan areas at the worldwide level and is recognised as a major player by large international organisations such as the UN, WHO, the World Bank and others.

Scientists propose white roofs
and cool roads for world cities
Sacramento, 12 September 2008: California scientists announced a formula to calculate how much carbon dioxide (CO2) can be offset by increasing the reflectivity of urban surfaces like rooftops and roads. California Energy Commissioner Art Rosenfeld said white roofs could cut a building's energy use by 20 per cent and save consumers Money. "The potential energy savings in the US is in excess of $1 billion annually. Additionally, by conserving electricity we are emitting less CO2 from power plants," he added.

The scientists have quantified the effects of white roofs in populated settings in terms of CO2 offset. In a study they estimate that replacing nonreflective, dark roofing materials with white ones on an average house with 1,000 square feet of roof would result in an equivalent CO2 offset of 10 metric tons annually. With an offset value of $25 per metric ton, that could be worth $250, according to European CO2 markets.

Scientists have known for centuries that putting white roofs on homes and buildings is a simple and effective way to reflect the sun's powerful rays. Similarly, cool-colored pavements aid in the reduction of "urban heat islands." When rooftops and pavements are more reflective, global warming can be reduced.

Since 2005, commercial buildings with flat roofs in California have been required to have white roofs. Residential sloped roofs are also becoming more efficient. Beginning in 2009, new residential roofs and retrofit constructions in California will be required to have "cool-colored" roofs which reflect a higher fraction of the sun's rays than current roofing materials of the same color.

Because white roofs act as a geo-engineering technique to cool the earth on a global scale, the Californian scientists propose an international campaign to organize 100 of the world's largest cities in tropical and temperate zones to develop programmess to require white roofs and "cool pavements" when roofs are initially constructed and pavements installed. The projected estimate for worldwide CO2 emissions in 2025 is 37 billion metric tons; a proposed global CO2 offset would be 44 billion metric tons, valued at $1,100 billion, and enough to offset more than one year of the total global CO2 emissions.

"This idea of a 'cool cities' campaign could lead to significant energy savings, improved air quality, reduce the heat island effect in summer, and more importantly, cool the globe. This simple and effective idea can organize the world into taking measured steps to mitigate global warming. Our findings will help city leaders and urban planners quantify the amount of CO2 they can offset using white roofs and cool roads."