Ambitious City Promises

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 is contributing to 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, cities in Southeast Asia will 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 will show how collective action taken in cities, with leadership from local governments, can contribute to achieving and ratcheting up national and global climate goals.