The second day of the Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change got underway with focused discussions on critical tools cities need to achieve local climate goals.
Mayoral Second Annual Summit: Global Lead City Network on Sustainable Procurement (GLCN)
Given the huge spending power of cities worldwide, sustainable procurement represents one of the most direct and practical tools cities can use to tackle climate change locally. To encourage cities around the world to adopt sustainable procurement practices, the Seoul Metropolitan Government launched the GLCN in partnership with ICLEI. The hope is that by directing spending on construction projects, vehicles, IT equipment, catering and other services towards innovative and sustainable products and services, city governments can help drive the transition to a more sustainable economy.
Gyeonggi Ryu, Vice Mayor of Seoul introduced the Global Lead City Network on Sustainable Procurement which was launched last year in Paris to help scale up Sustainable Public Procurement
Interactive interview round: financing local action
Local governments cannot fund climate change responses on public funding sources only, especially in regional and national contexts where fiscal decentralization and transfers are far from being adequately designed to answer the needs imposed by the new demands in urban area. Public funding mechanisms will be inadequate without addition support from private investors and strengthening of local capabilities in financial engineering and credit worthiness.
This dialogue with financial institutions identified how local governments are partnering today with bilateral and multilateral funds, and what should be done to link local governments to domestic and international climate finance.
- Carlos De Freitas, from the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, reminded that that 4.5 to 5.4 Trillion USD are needed for climate finance.
Mayors’ Route Towards COP22 and Habitat III
The Seoul Mayors Forum culminated with a presentation of the Seoul Communiqué, presented by Mayor Park Won Soon of Seoul on behalf of the nearly 40 attending cities and towns that came together to state their commitments as local governments and push for greater global ambition.
- Through the Seoul Communiqué, 34 cities and towns stated their commitment to climate action and called on nations to raise their ambitions while ensuring an inclusive, vertically integrated process for implementing nationally determined contributions (NDCs).