As The World Looks Towards Habitat III, The First Stop for Cities is Seoul
At the height of what has been the warmest year on record, the world is looking for a path forward — one that leads to rapid, inclusive and climate-smart development. While nations around the world begin to formally ratify the Paris Agreement, cities are moving forward with action to push the historic Agreement into force this year.
Cities are all too familiar of the urgency of implementing this global commitment as climate change knows no borders and has no bounds. With cities accounting for 70 percent of global emissions, and with rapid urbanization thwarting sustainable growth, the need for cities to act has never been greater.
While each city faces a slightly different set of challenges, all cities are connected by this critical need to take action, as well as the ability to take action. Like every other city around the world, Seoul is dealing with dried up lands, flooded streets, and worsening air quality. From the top of the N Seoul Tower to the bottom of Cheonggyecheon River, Seoul is not free from the impacts of a changing climate. But cities are more agile than national governments, and through innovative strategies, urban leaders are transforming open spaces into greener parks, advancing low-carbon infrastructure, and pursuing cleaner ways of transportation. Cities are driving action now.
In 2015, Seoul committed to the Compact of Mayors and developed the Seoul Action Plan aiming to motivate more cities to commit to greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, strengthen existing city commitments as well as implement similar action plans. The plan set an emissions reduction goal of 25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2030, which reflects a cut of 1 tonne of carbon dioxide per 10 million citizens. Having reached compliance with the Compact of Mayors ahead of the COP21 last year, Seoul is progressing towards a greener future. Like many other cities with clear targets and timelines, Seoul stands at the front lines of climate change.
But cities cannot be siloed. More collaboration must be explored and more global ambition must be sought out.
And that’s why, this year, Seoul convened nearly 40 cities for the Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change. Cities have the potential to help close the 14-GT gap between national commitments and the emissions reductions needed to keep global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. The Forum offered an opportunity for cities to continue to shape their role in assisting national commitments, work towards ensuring a rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement, and further amplify the global conversation around climate change as we head into HABITAT III and COP22.
Attending cities focused specifically on how commitments made as part of the Compact of Mayors fits into the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, as well as the New Urban Agenda that will be adopted in Quito. With more than 525 cities around the world committed to the Compact of Mayors and the newly announced merger of the Compact of Mayors and Covenant of Mayors to form the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, which will be rolled out in 2017, cities want to bridge their shared local action for a global impact. And similarly, this Forum was a platform to learn more about these existing city climate commitments while also advancing a shared strategy for as we head into HABITAT III and COP22.
The Forum not only showed the efforts happening at the local level around the world, but also demonstrated how cities can cement their joint progress towards a New Urban Agenda. As climate leaders, cities can build a sustainable future together.
So to all cities, it’s time to scale up action.
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