cities and climate change

"Leaders from more than 30 of the world's largest cities are in New York Tuesday to discuss combating carbon emissions and reversing climate change. Victoria Cavaliere reports from York that former U.S. President Bill Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are co-sponsors of the C-40 Large Cities Climate Summit."

So reports Voice of America. The list of participating cities delegations range from Addis Ababa to Mumbai; Los Angeles to Mexico; London to Jakarta. The speakers include some of the most innovative mayors from around the world -including Ken "Kengestion Pricing" Livingstone of London and Mayor Beto Richa of Bogota.

The four-day conference includes sessions on:

Plenary 3 – Communicating Change & Ensuring Action

This plenary will focus on the fact that for public or private sector leaders to take action on global warming, they must have the tools to create a public mandate for change. In order to create change, leaders must demonstrate political courage, create thoughtful communications strategies, develop metrics for measurement, engage their stakeholders and cooperate with public or private entities. This plenary ultimately asks, once a city or business decides to build sustainability into its decision-making process, how can it also build it into its brand identity?

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Panel 5 – Transport: Fuelling Urban Transit Alternatives

This panel will focus on the costs and benefits of various fuel types and aims to assist participants in making strategic choices for the future development and management of urban transit systems.

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Plenary 4 – Cities Can Thrive in a Low Carbon Economy

This plenary will look at creative financing mechanisms for sustainable infrastructure, such as clean energy and energy efficiency projects in cities. It will broadly examine how capital markets are responding to climate change and how cities and businesses can work with these developments to maximize benefits and opportunities

And here's something the new mayors of the cities of Metro Manila should pay attention to:

Carlos "Beto" Richa, the mayor of Curitiba, in southern Brazil, has also taken bold steps to decrease pollution and improve public transportation in his city.

Richa says significantly cutting the cost of fares on buses and trains has increased passenger rides by 12 million in one year. In turn, emission levels fell 12 percent.

"In emerging countries, ensuring quality mass transit assistance is not enough," he said. "Offering fair prices, compatible with the users' wallet, is essential."

The plans were controversial at first, but both mayors say their popularity rose as they adopted a green agenda. (Ken) Livingston says elected officials should not be afraid of criticism for trying to tackle congestion issues.

And, oh yes, guess which asian megacity doesn't have a delegation at the conference?