UN Climate Change Conference 27.04.2012

The UN Climate Change Conference known as COP-15 (Conference of Parties) took place in Copenhagen on 7-19 December 2009. The summit was attended by fifteen thousand delegates and thirty thousand activists from 192 different countries. Five thousand journalists followed the proceedings.

Scientific studies show that certain cities and regions will be most severely affected by climate change. Water, eco-systems, food stocks and health/hygiene issues will be at the forefront of local/regional government concerns for time to come. Cities cover around one per cent of the earth surface while playing host to more than half of the entire population. For this reason, the struggle against climate change will be won or lost in cities.

While these facts are widely acknowledged, current agreements and other legal documents barely, if ever, mention the central role of cities and regions as actors in this global effort. To this end, local and regional actors under the umbrella of the UCLG and its regional secretariats have demanded of the UN that they be taken into account as co-decision makers in this process.

While in Copenhagen, Mr. Kadir Topbaş, UCLG Co-President and Mayor of Istanbul, participated in the Climate Summit for Mayors and made a speech in one of the sessions. Mr. Topbaş said that “cities can be central in the task of meeting national and government targets for emission reductions and the implications of mitigation can be seen at a number of levels of urban planning and governance”. He emphasized that well-planned and well-governed cities can bring together high living standards and low greenhouse gas emissions. He also pointed out that the development problems of the countries and cities should be taken up together and this is the only way to really and seriously develop the Climate Change agenda. Mayor Topbaş added that the innovative policies that are implemented by the cities and regional governments should be backed up by policies at national level.