96 Major Cities Launch Clean Energy Initiatives in Response to COVID

A coalition of mayors of 96 cities across the world have launched a new agenda focusing on health, clean air, and new jobs for post-COVID-19 recovery.

A coalition of mayors of 96 cities across the world, including New Delhi, representing 700 million people have launched a new agenda focusing on health, clean air and new jobs for post-COVID-19 economic recovery.

They include mayors of cities like Freetown, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Medellin, Milan, Montreal, New Orleans, Rotterdam, Seattle and Seoul. They are jointly leading the healthy recovery of cities.

With COVID-19 infections hitting 12 million and 305 million jobs under threat, members of C40 released a set of examples and actions city leaders should take to safeguard citizens’ health, protect growth and ensure a cleaner recovery.

The proposed actions include: giving streets back to people, training and upskilling workers, providing new jobs, and delivering a safe mass transit system.

Potentially yielding USD 24 trillion in economic benefits by 2050, climate investments could support more than 80 million jobs by 2030. Many cities are already moving faster than national governments.

Examples of action include: Bogota has rolled out 35 km of cycle lanes and system of streets closed to cars; London is expanding its cyclist infrastructure; Milan announced an ambitious scheme to increase walking and cycling; Freetown increased water provisions in the most vulnerable areas; Los Angeles has installed solar panels at no cost on the homes of almost 2,000 low-income families, and Seoul will kick off a building retrofitting scheme that is expected to create 20,000 jobs by 2022.

Recently, we had reported that during the global pandemic, total commitments in support of fossil fuels reached at least USD 151 billion from G20 governments. Of which, only 20 percent made financial support conditional on green requirements, such as setting climate targets or implementing pollution reduction plans. While at the same time, only USD 89 billion has been committed to clean energy but a massive 81 percent of this support is unspecific about the appropriate environmental safeguards.