On Friday, 30, The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy together with the United Nations Program for Human Settlements, UN-HABITAT, held a virtual meeting to reflect on the interconnections between the objectives of the Covenant and the projects carried out by the organization in Bolivia. On occasion, the Covenant was presented to cities involved in the UN-Habitat “City Policies” program.
The UN Program Coordinator, Sérgio Blanco presented data on CO2 emissions, waste treatment, climate change in relation to temperatures and precipitation rates in Bolivia, highlighting aspects such as the loss of ice mass in the real mountain range, caused by the changes climate change, which has already achieved 37.4% glacial reduction between 1980 and 2009.
In order to encourage changes in this scenario and stimulate local actions, UN-Habitat is developing the City Policies program. The program identifies and proposes public policies to face the great challenges and to take advantage of the opportunities of the urbanization process with the aspiration to contribute to the diversification of the economic model, to reduce inequalities and to guarantee sustainability.
“We intend to promote healthy and resilient urban environments, optimizing risk management and adaptation to climate change capacities”, explained Blanco. The opportunities for implementing actions to adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse gases pointed out by the organization should focus on: solutions based on nature; comprehensive solid waste management programs; sustainable urban mobility plans and risk management plans.
“Our proposal for this policy is to establish a horizontal collaboration platform between local governments, with the support of different sectors to implement the proposals from the beginning,” said Blanco.
The executive director of the Plurinational Authority of Mother Earth, Gisela Ulloa, spoke about the global importance of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and detailed the progress of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in Bolivia. She pointed to the review in the areas of parks and agriculture, energy, water and cities. In addition, it presented ongoing actions, such as the identification of carbon emissions and the transition to a green economy that is robust and inclusive. Gisela also stressed the relevance of inventories on greenhouse gas emissions for the fulfillment of NDCs and the challenges to be overcome.
The Coordinator of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Latin America and the Caribbean, Marja Edelman, presented the Covenant, emphasizing that today more than 10,000 municipalities are part of the initiative, in 135 countries, benefiting more than 800 million people and with the capacity to impact greatly in reducing CO² emissions. “In 2030, the cities and local governments of the Global Covenant of Mayors have the potential to collectively reduce 2.3 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year compared to what is currently produced,” said Edelman.
In addition, the mandatory requirements for the cities that make up the Covenant and the procedures to join the largest global alliance to tackle climate change were also detailed. At the end of the event, an open dialogue allowed cities to exchange information and answer questions related to the topics presented.
