Ambitious City Promises
Engaging citizens. Driving climate action.
In a rapidly urbanizing world, local governments and their communities play a pivotal role in tackling climate change and advancing sustainability in cities. The Ambitious City Promises project, led by ICLEI is designed to advance this work by capacitating local governments, engaging citizens and driving climate action through Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS).
The Promise of Seoul, a comprehensive climate strategy adopted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government at the ICLEI World Congress in 2015, is at the heart of Ambitious City Promises. It provides a model of effective climate action at the community level, showing that cities can be both engines of growth and global leaders on climate action by establishing inclusive low emission urban economies.
Through Ambitious City Promises, local governments in Southeast Asia adapt this model of inclusive, ambitious climate action, mainstreaming low emission development strategies and creating new climate leaders. By spreading the vision behind the Promise of Seoul, Ambitious City Promises show how collective action taken in cities, with leadership from local governments, can contribute to achieving and ratcheting up national and global climate goals.
Through Ambitious City Promises, ICLEI aims to:
Activities
Through Ambitious City Promises, local governments across Southeast Asia:
- Participate in in-country consultations to facilitate capacity building, policy advice and technology transfer support provided by ICLEI, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the project advisory group.
- Develop new or improved comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions inventories.
- Actively engage city residents and key local climate stakeholders.
- Use platforms to collect pledges from key stakeholders, including businesses and households.
- Prepare concrete climate action plans – called City Promises – that include ambitious targets and integrate community pledges.
- Initiate implementation of City Promises through pilot projects.
- Report aggregated city plans, actions and achievements via the carbonn Climate Registry (cCR).
- Engage in learning and cooperation opportunities with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and other cities.
Where the Promise of Seoul is spreading
Featured updates
Ambitious City Promises is implemented by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The ICLEI World Secretariat is responsible for project management and coordination. ICLEI Southeast Asia Secretariat and ICLEI East Asia Secretariat are also implementing partners. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is a supporting partner.