OUR IMPACT
How ICLEI is working across the globe
Every year, ICLEI’s works on hundreds of activities with thousands of cities, towns and regions around the globe
Search our activitiesOur activities and action plan
Every three years, ICLEI commits to a Strategic Vision. Our action plan of hundreds of activities around the world gives a roadmap for how we will fulfill this vision.
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WHAT WE DO
ICLEI's network of impact
ICLEI is engaged in hundreds of activities in more than 2,500 cities, towns and regions worldwide. Our activities, guided by five interconnected pathways, are designed to facilitate integrated sustainable urban development.
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ICLEI in numbers
Our Impact
465+
global activities
2500+
local & regional governments involved
1200+
local & regional governments reporting climate actions
560+
jurisdictions committed to climate action by 2030
systemic approaches to resource efficiency
Advancing circular solutions
Cities are facing rising waste, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation driven by unsustainable, linear economies. Circular development offers a solution: Rethinking how resources are used, reused, and shared to create thriving, low-waste communities. ICLEI helps local and regional governments lead this transition by providing tools, guidance, and global platforms that turn circular principles into practical policies.
Active
Circular Cities Declaration
The European Circular Cities Declaration (CCD) is designed to help accelerate the transition from a ...
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Active
Circular City Labs – Testing reusable packaging systems in cities
The Circular City Labs (CCL) project aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through waste pre...
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Active
Circular Turku
The project aims to design a regional roadmap to operationalize circularity in the Turku region with...
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Active
Towards circular economy in the plastic packaging value chain
Plastics production has surged over the past 50 years, from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to 311 million...
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Active
Circular Biocarbon
While there have been huge advances in waste recycling over recent decades, there still remains room...
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Active
Circular Cities and Regions Initiative Coordination and Support Action
The CCRI CSA's goal is to strengthen and complement the CCRI, in order to foster the implementation ...
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Active
Circular City Centre – C3
Recognising the role of cities as cradles and catalysts of circular action and change, C3 supports c...
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Active
Circular City Labs
This type of project is developed in response to the need to transition from a linear economic model...
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Completed
Circular Enonomy Trainning
Under the need to develop capacities in local governments, training is provided to public officials ...
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Active
Circular Food System
By estimation, in 2050 cities will consume 80% of the food. On the other hand, Asia is responsible f...
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Completed
2024 Circular Pathway Technical Assistance
ICLEI USA’s local government members are new to circular economy concepts and actions but are incr...
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Completed
Accelerating Circular Economy in Africa
The rationale for the project is as follows: -Limited skills and technical resources: Start-ups and ...
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Completed
Accelerating NDC through Circular Economy in Cities – ACE Project: Development of a National Circular Economy Framework
Waste management remains to be a primary and persistent concern in the Philippines. Some of the fact...
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Completed
Accelerating NDC through Circular Economy in Cities – ACE Project: Formulation of Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Quezon City Green Public Procurement (QC-GPP) Ordinance of 2021
Waste, including marine litter, is one of the most pressing issues in the Philippines and a signific...
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Active
Be.CULTOUR – Beyond CULtural TOURism: human-centred innovations for sustainable and circular tourism
Be.CULTOUR stands for “Beyond Cultural Tourism” and aims to develop human-centred innovations fo...
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Active
Circular Turku: Regional Collaboration for Resource Wisdom
The current linear economy relies on intensive resource extraction where the majority of materials a...
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Active
EU SWITCH-Asia-Transitions to CIRCULAR economy practices in TEXTILE and apparel MSMEs along the lifecycle in Huzhou and Shaoxing
The textile and apparel industry now face various challenges in achieving a complete transformation ...
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Active
Green Circular Cities Coalition
The Green Circular Cities Coalition responds to the urgent need for the circular society in cities i...
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Active
Hubs for Circularity European Community of Practice
1. The project is needed to develop a European Community of Practice (ECoP) for Hubs for Circularity...
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Active
ICLEI Circulars
Local governments are at the frontline of the pressing waste and resource challenges triggered by th...
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Understanding vulnerabilities
Building resilience in coastal cities
Extreme weather is intensifying, placing coastal cities on the frontlines of climate emergency response. ICLEI is committed to supporting coastal local and regional governments through community-led solutions and collaboration that strengthen resilience and protect livelihoods. In the lead-up to Climate COP31, global attention will turn to the Pacific, with key pre-COP meetings hosted in Fiji and Tuvalu highlighting the urgent realities facing island and coastal communities.
Active
Blue-Green Development in Kiribati: Sustainable community-based development for climate and pandemic resilience
Focusing on Kiribati, the project builds resilience to common challenges faced by Small Island Devel...
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Active
Frontline Cities and Islands 2.0
Many island urban settlements are growing rapidly but climate change and increasingly frequent disas...
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Completed
Pacific Resilience Fiji
The Pacific islands are very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. Whil...
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Active
Designing Inclusive African Coastal City Resilience
African coastal cities, particularly informal settlements, face significant challenges in building c...
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Active
World Coastal Forum
Coastal wetlands and ecologically associated habitats, are of critical importance as nature-based so...
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Completed
Adapting to Climate Change and enhancing Resilience
The impacts of climate change are already a measurable reality and if not addressed head-on immediat...
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Active
Pacific North Shore and Sunshine Coast Collaborative
Coastal flooding and rising sea levels know no boundaries, with the challenges faced by one communit...
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Completed
Asia-Pacific Low-Emission City Series 2019
Taiwan's corporate sustainability breaks through on the international stage! Domestic industry, ...
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Completed
Making Cities Resilient 2030 Pacific
UNDRR launched the new MCR 2030 program early in 2021. The Pacific Office of UNDRR then engaged ICL...
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Featured city
Yeosu City, Republic of Korea
An ICLEI Member since 2010, Yeosu City has pursued climate leadership since declaring its vision to become an International Pilot City for Climate Protection in 2008. Since then, it has hosted annual Climate Protection Weeks and established a collaborative governance body bringing together local government, industry, and academia to advance climate policymaking.
Recently, Yeosu has developed a 2025–2034 Carbon Neutrality Basic Plan, targeting a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 levels by 2030, with 59 priority tasks covering five sectors: construction, transport, agriculture and fisheries, waste, and carbon sinks.
Yeosu has been selected as the host city for the 2026 UNFCCC Climate Week, to be held on 21-25 April, a major international gathering ahead of the UNFCCC COP.
Case Study in Good Practices of Korean Local Governments
Although Korean local governments have fruitful outcomes through their policy implementation for sustainability, their activities…
Global Protocol for Community Scale GHG Emissions inventories
The further enhancement and development of the GPC responds to the needs of local governments…
CDP-ICLEI Track Reporting
Local and regional governments can’t manage what they don’t measure. The climate reporting process encourages…
Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy in Korea
Global Covenant of Mayors in Korea aims to raise the ambition of local climate action…
Our five pathways
How we are working across the five pathways
With more than 2500 cities, towns and regions from around the world engaged in our work, ICLEI is the largest network of local and regional governments committed to sustainability