World cities to combat global warming

[DocMartin]

Quote:

City leaders from around the world declared at an environmental summit Tuesday that they can no longer wait for national governments to reverse global warming and instead must find solutions on their own.

Mayors from Seoul to Sao Paulo and Albuquerque to Addis Ababa gathered at the summit, hosted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton, to exchange ideas on how their cities have gone green.

– note that, so far as I know, Hong Kong’s mayor – oops, Chief Executive – is not at the meeting. Not that he could really tell people how the city has gone green: instead, could reveal how under his leadership it’s increasingly going from green to concrete.
But I digress…

Quote:

“We cannot sit around and watch our environment deteriorate and put this world in jeopardy,” Bloomberg said. “The public wants action, and if you have a void, the mayors are going to fill that void.”

Mayors and local leaders from more than 30 cities kicked off the conference, known as the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, which first met in 2005 in London. Clinton did not attend Tuesday but was expected to be there Wednesday.

Organizers say cities bear a significant responsibility to address climate change because they generate 80 percent of heat-trapping greenhouse gases but cover less than 1 percent of the Earth’s surface.
…

“Where national governments can’t or won’t lead, cities will,” Toronto Mayor David Miller said.

Cities have power and responsibility to fight climate change, world’s mayors tell summit

Gotta love that last quote, in context of Hong Kong. Anyone here expect us to take any leading role re global warming anytime soon?

[DocMartin]

"16 world cities join Clinton plan to cut emissions" says headline of an item in today’s South China Morning Post. What about Asia’s World City – is that among the 16? you may wonder. Sadly, no; none of the world citles listed are in China. Clinton’s foundation says planned changes will cut building emissions by 20-50% If successful, maybe HK can play catch up? – after Donald Tsang has overseen increase in concreting, which in turn will exacerbate our contributions to and problems from global warming. For info on the plan, see Clinton Foundation website

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