Training the Trainer: Moving from Commitment to Compliance with the Compact of Mayors

This week, over 50 representatives from all of our partner organizations, including C40 Cities, ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability, and UCLG, and endorsing partners WRI, UN Habitat, and CDP, gathered at Bloomberg’s Headquarters in New York City for a week long workshop on the Compact of Mayors.

This highly-technical training offered a collaborative environment for each of the representatives from the partner networks to learn and understand how to work with Compact-committed cities to empower them meet the requirements and achieve full compliance.

Moving from commitment to compliance, a four-step process, demonstrates the dedication by cities and local leaders in not only fighting climate change, but also their impact in this global effort. Taking an inventory is a key part of the process, and to do so, local city leaders must assess the current impacts of climate change on their city, by breaking down emissions from buildings and transport sectors, using the GPC standard; identify the risks and hazards from climate change (i.e. drought, extreme heat, and/or flooding); and transparently report the inventory via the CDP Cities or the carbonn Climate Registry platforms.

Once the full greenhouse gas inventory is completed, a city has two more years to set targets, create a climate action plan and begin to execute the plan to meet set targets to complete the process. While this requires plenty of resources, cities are not alone in this process.

The Compact of Mayors provides a space to publicly recognize the impact of cities’ collective actions through standardized measurement of emissions and climate risk, and consistent, public reporting of their efforts. And the Compact and our entire network of partners are ready to support cities throughout this process, for we all make a commitment to cities as well when they make a commitment to us.

And this is why we’re training the trainers.

Starting from “Why compile an inventory?”, to venturing through the ins and outs of the reporting platforms, to exploring the processes for GPC data collection and management, to discussing best practices for quality assurance and quality control, this week has prepared each and every trainer to best assist cities as they take steps on climate action. We’re helping cities to make their way forward towards compliance and towards a cleaner, more sustainable future.

With this opportunity to work together, share ideas, and network with each other, these representatives from our city partners return to their respective regions, walking away full of new insights and emerging more united than ever to tackle this fight against climate change.

See the full album from the Train the Trainer week on our Flickr.

Here’s more on Compact’s reporting tools:

Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC)

Clearpath

CRAFT

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