Resilient Cities: As it Happened
- Resilient Cities 2010 concluded 30 May with the signing of the Bonn Declaration of Mayors, a road map for the World Mayors Council on Climate Change's trajectory toward the next UN climate change conference (COP 16) in Cancún, Mexico, and beyond. Read the Bonn Declaration of Mayors in English, French and Spanish.
- Visit the Resilient Cities 2010 photo gallery.
- Mayors from every continent met during the opening of the Mayors Adaptation Forum. Marcel Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City presided over the initial meeting of the mayors. Read more...
- View the Congress summary of David Jackson, Head of Regional Office, Asia and Pacific, United Nations Capital Development Fund
- David Cadman and Reta Jo Lewis
- Jurgen Nimptsch
Opening Plenary, Friday, 28 May 2010
Resilient Cities 2010: 1st World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change kicked off this morning, to a packed house of delegates.
David Cadman, President of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and Councillor for the City of Vancouver, Canada, opened the first plenary session by underlining the somber realities of climate change and the important role cities must play in facing the problem.
Cadman gave examples of how climate change is already having visible effects on the natural environment. In British Columbia (BC), Canada, climate change has lead to the migration of the mountain pine beetle which has destroyed “a patch of forest the size of Germany and France combined.”
Cadman also described the particular risks climate change will pose to the salmon population of BC. If river temperatures were to rise by only one degree, the salmon would no longer travel up river. This would break the food chain and surrounding ecosystem; bears, eagles, marmots, and others, would no longer have access to their staple food. Deprived of their fish diet, Cadman said, these animals would no longer supply the type of fertilizer necessary for healthy forest growth. The disconnection of the food chain has a “measurable” impact on the natural environment, he said.
Jürgen Nimptsch, Lord Mayor of the City of Bonn and Vice Chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change said his city has endorsed ICLEI’s Resilient Cities project from the beginning; “the numer and quality of participants attracted [to the congress] proves that we were right,” he said. “In the past, cities formed a large part of the problem and now cities are forming a bigger part of the solution,” he added.
Reta Jo Lewis, special representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, US Department of State, discussed the United States' (US) renewed commitment to a sustainable, green economy—“we know that cities are engines of green growth,” she said—as well as a pledge to improve international engagement at the international, national and local levels.“Climate change is the biggest threat facing the planet,” Lewis added, citing the US' resolve to work directly with mayors and cities to resolve and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Other panelists for the opening plenary were Manfred Konukiewitz, Deputy Director General, Global and Sectorial Policies, Commissioner for Climate Policy, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; Ursula Heinen-Esser, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety; Inga Klevby, Deputy Executive Director of UN-HABITAT; Helena Moline Valdés, Deputy Director, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, ICLEI Secretary General.
The next days will offer many opportunities for climate change experts, NGO representatives, municipal leaders and city planners to pursue solutions to the challenges facing cities in the era of climate change.