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Tokyo Joins Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
4 December 2006
Tokyo has joined the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, an organization chaired by the Mayor of London comprising most of the largest cities in the world. The Group’s urban areas are responsible for more than 75% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
In August this year, the Mayor joined with former US President Bill Clinton to announce a partnership of the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Clinton Foundation Climate Change Initiative (CCI) to work on an accelerated program of carbon reductions in urban areas.
As one of the world’s most important cities, Tokyo is a significant addition to the Large Cities Climate Change Group. There is much that they will contribute to other members’ climate change work. Japan is at the forefront of developing renewable energy technology and Tokyo is leading the world in mapping and reducing its urban heat island and in developing innovative methods to manage flood risk.
The world’s largest cities have a major role to play in averting catastrophic climate change. Already they are at the centre of developing the technologies and innovative new practices that provide hope that we can radically reduce carbon emissions and prepare for the inevitable impacts.
—Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone
The Large Cities Climate Leadership Group currently comprises Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Chicago, Delhi NCT, Dhaka, Houston, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Toronto, and Tokyo.
December 4, 2006 in Climate Change | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: tom deplume | December 05, 2006 at 12:22 PM
Would the 24 urban areas include their suburbs and satillite towns/cities? Also, do the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group (LCLG) members represent all of their repsective metro areas, or just their cities? There is a big discrepancy, in population and economic activity, between the whole metro area and just the city. For NYC, there are 8+ million people. For the metro area, there are >22million. For Tokyo, 8+ million live in the city, 12+ million in Tokyo metro area, and 35+ million for the Greater Tokyo Area.
Posted by: allen_Z | December 05, 2006 at 01:17 PM
As the example of London shows, large cities can take traffic and CO2 mitigation measures that impact the commuters living in suburbs that are technically beyond their jurisdiction. In that sense, the distinction between how many people technically live in these cities vs. in the greater metropolitan areas becomes a bit of a moot point.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | December 05, 2006 at 04:46 PM
True for transportation, but there are still the issue of electricity, and other major GHG producing processes (ie petrochemicals, steel mills, etc).
Posted by: allen_Z | December 05, 2006 at 07:20 PM
Due to the fact that cities have expensive land, zoning laws, and relatively high property values & taxes, many factories (esp energy intensive heavy industry) are situated outside cities.
Posted by: allen_Z | December 05, 2006 at 07:24 PM
Mayor Daley (Chicago) is a (self) proclaimed greenie- he signed this treat and has planted a few thousand trees and promoted some green roofs downtown.
On the other hand, he keeps battling for (Ohare) airport expansion- I'm not sure how sincerely he can speak to leadership re: carbon reductions.
Posted by: fyi CO2 | December 07, 2006 at 10:33 AM
Katherine Hepburn has one of my favorite quotes, and to me it seems to describe what makes the most memorable leaders: If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
Posted by: Leadership Courses | November 10, 2008 at 10:03 PM
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Just 24 urban areas are responsible for 75% of GHG!!!