Green Cities Prepare for Copenhagen: ICLEI in Edmonton

Big change starts small. That’s the idea, at least, behind the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), an organization made up of representatives from over one thousand municipalities around the world. Six hundred of them arrived in Edmonton recently for a multi-day conference on topics ranging from wastewater treatment to public engagement. Their mandate stems from a United Nations program called Agenda 21, adopted in Brazil at the 1992 Earth Summit and designed to allow participation by non-state actors in policies affecting the global environment.

In Edmonton, the purpose was clear: radical and rapid change is needed, they said, and local governments must push for it at December’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Yet creating and presenting a unified voice for local governments is not really what ICLEI does. Their mission is twofold: it acts as an association to share best practices, research, and support networks among sustainably-minded cities, and it organizes local programs and policies which feed into global climate goals.

So what can be achieved at a local level that will affect the big picture? For ICLEI president David Cadman, also the Deputy Mayor of Vancouver, the answer is varied. He points to Ontario’s recently adopted feed-in tariff which he claims will “stimulate you as the individual to put in solar panels, or a wind generator if you have a farm somewhere.” And the top-down incentives and responsibilities don’t stop there.

“We need to steward our fossil fuels - our oil, our gas, our coal - for a much longer time, because much of those resources are going to be key to this transformation,” he says, “The absolute key, though, is moving toward energy efficiency.”

ICLEI has a vociferous advocate for local governments in Mr. Cadman. Major emissions come from cities, he reasons, and cities are growing rapidly. This is where the big changes will occur; must occur.

Cadman will be roaming the hallways at the Copenhagen conference, just as he has done at the previous climate change summits in Bali and Poland. Their presence represents millions of citizens worldwide, he says, naming the organizations with which ICLEI is working, including United Cities and Local Governments, Canadian Federation of Municipalities, C-40 (an association of the world’s largest cities chaired by Mayor David Miller of Toronto), and the World Mayors Council. The top-down policies Cadman advocates on a local level will be the same he proposes from the ground up in Copenhagen, where ICLEI will mingle with global heads of state and federal ministers.

“ICELI has been following the negotiations on a post-Kyoto agreement,” Cadman says, “What we’re trying to do is have local governments working closely with national governments. We’re all on the same page. We know what we want - a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas by 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050”

The conference began at 9:00 am each day with keynote speakers (including Toronto’s Adam Fenech of Environment Canada, Mathis Wackernagel of California’s Global Footprint Network, and Alex Wong of the Davos World Economic Forum global industries sector) and wrapped up around 7:00 pm in break-away sessions for mayors, CEOs, and city staffers. There were multiple social functions as well, including a reception at city hall hosted by Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, and a dinner and dance at Fort Edmonton. A concurrent conference for academic researchers took place, also in the Shaw Convention Centre, and attracted well-known authors Dr. Mark Roseland of Vancouver, Dr. Peter Newman of Perth, Australia, and Dr. Yvonne Rydin of London, England, among others.
Published in National Post, August 8 2009