Next week the Mayors from 40 of the world’s largest cities will gather in New York to review progress, share best practices, identify collaboration opportunities and set action plans to fight climate change. The C40 Large Cities Climate Summit program will include topics such as Beating Congestion, Decentralized Energy, Efficient Water Supply, Climate Change in the context of Economic Development, Green Buildings, Waste Management & Low Carbon Economies.
In big city I had pointed out how the action of the largest cities is what really matters when dealing with global problems. 10% of the world’s population live in 100 of the largest cities alone. Through management of their infrastructure, landfills, treatment plans, legislation of local land use policies to drive development in the right direction, regulation of automobiles and their energy plants, the overall impact they can exercise is significant.
The delegates attending will represent (bold indicates among 10 largest cities in the world):
Melbourne, Sydney (Australia)
Dhaka (Bangladesh)
Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Toronto (Canada)
Beijing, Shanghai (China)
Bogota (Colombia)
Copenhagen (Denmark)
Cairo (Egypt)
Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
Paris (France)
Berlin (Germany)
Delhi, Mumbai (India)
Jakarta (Indonesia)
Rome (Italy)
Tokyo (Japan)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Lagos (Nigeria)
Karachi (Pakistan)
Lima (Peru)
Warsaw (Poland)
Moscow (Russia)
Johannesburg (South Africa)
Seoul (South Korea)
Barcelona, Madrid (Spain)
Stockholm (Sweden)
Bangkok (Thailand)
Istanbul (Turkey)
London (United Kingdom)
Austin, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland (United States)
Update: Mayor David Miller of Toronto is now chair of the C40
It would be interesting to point out that the two missing cities from the top 10 largest list is Calcutta (India, 14.57 million people) and Buenos Aires (Argentina, 13.52).. (stats considering the cities and surrounding urban areas, right ?)
It is worth mentioning that Curitiba (Brazil) is on the list of attendees. Although it is not in the top 100 biggest city (near there, with 3 million people), the city is an example of urban planning, specially on urban transportation.
You may know the story better than I do, but I think some of the transportation innovations created by Curitiba have been exported to many other cities. Big doesn’t mean better. Imagine that, a small city of barely 3 million people teaching the big ones how to live a sustainable life.