Global mayors pledge support for renewables

SAN FRANCISCO, California, US, June 15, 2005 (Refocus Weekly)

Politicians from 50 of the largest cities in the world have signed a treaty to source 10% of their city’s peak electric load from renewable energies.

The non-binding ‘Urban Environmental Accord’ was signed at the United Nations World Environment Day conference in San Francisco. The accord lists 21 specific actions, topped by an action item to “adopt and implement a policy to increase the use of renewable energy to meet 10% of the city’s peak electric load within seven years.”

It also called for adoption and implementation of a policy to reduce each city’s peak power load by 10% within seven years through energy efficiency, shifting the timing of energy demands, and conservation measures. The mayors agreed to adopt municipal plans to reduce GHG emissions by 25% by 2030, including a system for accounting and auditing greenhouse gas emissions.

The 21 actions listed in the accord are “proven first steps toward environmental sustainability,” but municipalities must progressively improve performance in all areas if they are to achieve long-term sustainability, it notes. Cities will pick three actions to adopt each year, and will receive recognition under a ‘City Green Star Program’ for the number of actions that have been implemented at the end of seven years.

Signatories include Jakarta, Delhi, Istanbul, London, Seattle, Melbourne, Kampala, Zurich, Dhaka, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen and Islamabad. Some mayors signed the accord in advance of the ceremony.

“Implementing the Urban Environmental Accords will require an open, transparent, and participatory dialogue between government, community groups, businesses, academic institutions, and other key partners,” it explains. “Accords implementation will benefit where decisions are made on the basis of a careful assessment of available alternatives using the best available science.”

Other action items include the establishment of policies to achieve zero waste to landfills and incinerators by 2040; laws to reduce the use of disposable or non-renewable products by at least 50%; recycling and composting programs to reduce solid waste disposal to landfill and incineration by 20% per capita; policies to mandate green building rating system standard for all new municipal buildings; policies or programs to create environmentally-beneficial jobs in slums and/or low-income neighbourhoods; accessible public park or recreational open space within 0.5 km of every city resident by 2015; policies to expand affordable public transportation coverage to within 0.5 km of all city residents within ten years; laws to eliminate leaded gasoline and phase down sulphur levels in diesel and gasoline fuels; policies to reduce the percentage of commute trips by single occupancy vehicles by 10% in seven years; identify one chemical each year that poses a risk to human health and adopt laws to eliminate its use by the municipal government; promote locally-grown organic foods; reduce the number of unhealthy air days by 10% within seven years; policies to increase adequate access to safe drinking water with access for all by 2015; protect the ecological integrity of primary drinking water sources and adopt municipal wastewater management guidelines and reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharges by 10% within seven years.

In 1945, the leaders of 50 countries met in San Francisco to develop and sign the Charter of the United Nations. “We, the signatory mayors, have come together to write a new chapter in the history of global cooperation,” they said. “We commit to promote this collaborative platform and to build an ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable future for our urban citizens.”
“We commit ourselves to moving vital issues of sustainability to the top of our legislative agendas,” the accord continues. “By implementing the Urban Environmental Accords, we aim to realize the right to a clean, healthy, and safe environment for all members of our society.”

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