Newly appointed mayoral board will work to guide and support the coalition of cities to take even greater climate action and demonstrate the force of their impact on the global stage.

On 1 December, the appointed global mayoral board for the newly created Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energywas announced at the C40 Cities Mayors Summit in Mexico City. Leaders on climate action in their own communities, board members will expand the scale and impact of individual local action as part of this global coalition of cites of all sizes to address the causes and consequences of global climate change.

The nine mayors appointed to the board are:

• Kasim Reed (Mayor of Atlanta, USA)

• Patricia De Lille (Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa)

• Mohamed Sefiani (Mayor of Chefchaouen, Morocco)

• Anne Hidalgo (Mayor of Paris, France)

• Mauricio Rodas (Mayor of Quito, Ecuador)

• Jaiman Upadhyay (Mayor of Rajkot, India)

• Park Won-soon (Mayor of Seoul, South Korea)

• Tri Rismaharini (Mayor of Surabaya, Indonesia)

• Gregor Robertson (Mayor of Vancouver, Canada)

The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) formally brings together the Compact of Mayors and the EU Covenant of Mayors – the world’s two primary initiatives for cities and local governments – to create the largest and first-of-its-kind global coalition of cities and local governments leading in the fight against climate change. The coalition will officially launch in January 2017 and will be comprised of more than 7,100 cities across 6 continents and 119 countries, representing over 600 million people or 8% of the global population.

The initiative is chaired by UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, Michael R. Bloomberg, and European Commission Vice President, Maroš Šefčovič. Former Executive Secretary the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres, will as serve Vice-Chair of the board and current UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, will join the Board as an observer and advisor.

"Bringing together the EU Covenant of Mayors with the Compact of Mayors was a step forward for both coalitions, as it allowed us to expand our global reach to mobilize and galvanize local leadership in every corner of the world. Now, as our official board of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy takes shape, we're proud to be joined by these climate champions who are strengthening action in their cities and committed meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement." said Maroš Šefčovič.

Global Covenant of Mayors cities are already demonstrating their collective impact on a global scale by taking action to mitigate and adapt to climate change while tracking their progress transparently. Through the voluntary commitments they have already made, the potential of existing commitments for Global Covenant of Mayors cities under the Compact of Mayors and the EU Covenant of Mayors are significant:

• Under the Compact of Mayors, 596 commitments made by Compact cities are equivalent to reductions of nearly one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually by 2030 or 11.6 billion cumulative tons between 2010 and 2030. This represents 26% of what we know is possible globally through direct city action through action by these 600 cities alone.

• The over 6000 commitments under the EU’s Covenant of Mayors are projected to have an overall estimated reduction of 240 Mt C02e i.e. 27% by 2020. These emissions reductions from Covenant cities may represent approximately 31% of the overall EU28 GHG emission reduction target by 2020 compared to 2005. With a reduction of 23% achieved already in 2014, the Covenant cities are well on pace to reach this goal.

More information

Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy website

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