Activity Database

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.

The ICLEI East Asia Secretariat acted as one of the implementing partners of the project.

Find out more about the Ambitious City Promises project 

ICLEI is the local lead partner of the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) in East Asia, taking responsibility to plan and execute the work plan, coordinating participating cities and stakeholders, and facilitating the engagement among business and local governments in the region.

Through the BEA, ICLEI has supported local governments in China and Mongolia to inquire about practical information for policy design and planning, to have access to international funding opportunities for project implementation and replication, and to strengthen the relationship with non-governmental stakeholders.

Find out more about the BEA

CityFood is a flagship program of ICLEI that aims to accelerate local and regional government action toward sustainable food systems transformation. It spans a number of projects and initiatives across all of ICLEI’s Regional Offices and brings together local and regional governments as well as critical global and regional partners. Our clear mandate is leveraging the power of food for resilient futures.

The Horizon2020 funded project CLEVER Cities uses nature-based solutions (NbS) to address urban challenges and promote social inclusion in cities across Europe, South America, and China.

ICLEI’s main activities in the project include: taking the lead in transferring and customizing NbS, co-developing NbS replication roadmaps, Co-developing the Urban NbS Plan along with the funding and investment strategies, Co-developing the NbS implementation plan and opportunity-based implementation, and Launching a CLEVER Exchange Programme by organizing webinars, workshops, study visits, etc. to ensure knowledge transfer.

ICLEI will also ensure strategic coordination of communication and dissemination activities and Organize dissemination and knowledge brokerage events. These efforts will help to (i) advance the knowledge base on NbS for inclusive urban regeneration, (ii) integrate NbS in urban regeneration and planning processes, and (iii) produce governance, business and financial models for NbS projects.

Find out more at clevercities.eu

The Horizon2020 funded project Connecting Nature is a consortium of 30 partners within 16 European countries, and hubs in Brazil, China, Korea, Georgia, and Armenia.

The project will expand upon existing urban sustainability and innovation initiatives, create a reference framework of clear and useful indicators for the implementation and evaluation of nature-based solutions, build expertise and competency in all cities for innovative urban planning, policy and solution implementation, generate economic opportunities for a diversity of urban actors in Europe, and nurture urban community support, idea creation, active stakeholder participation and idea implementation at local levels and expansion and replication at a global level, through the global reach of ICLEI.

Together with the ICLEI European Secretariat, the ICLEI Beijing Office worked in collaboration with local partners on drawing down matching regional funding and establishing local Connecting Nature linked initiatives.

Find out more at connectingnature.eu

EcoLogistics promotes the transportation of goods by giving priority to health, safety, low emission, and people-centered urban development. It encourages circular and regional economies while limiting the impact of freight transport.

Through the EcoLogistics initiative, ICLEI aims to transform the urban logistics scene in cities through effective regulatory, planning, and administrative instruments at all levels of government. By highlighting urban freight as a priority area for local, regional, and national governments, ICLEI strengthens institutional capacity through multi-stakeholder participation and encourages a multilevel governance approach to urban freight policies.

In 2021, the ICLEI World Secretariat and the East Asia Secretariat co-produced the publication EcoLogistics in East Asia: The Frontier for Sustainable Urban Mobility.

Find out more at Sustainable Mobility at ICLEI 

The proposal for the “Energy Performance Contracting for Residential Retrofitting in Ulaanbaatar City” project, co-developed by GGGI Mongolia and ICLEI East Asia was shortlisted under the 6th Call NAMA Support Projects (NSPs) in 2019. Following the Detailed Preparation Phase extended through 2020-2021, the project is looking to enter the Implementation Phase by the first quarter of 2022. 

The proposed project aims to create a financing mechanism for Ulaanbaatar to carry out thermo-technical retrofitting to 375 precast residential building blocks. It is expected that the project will lead to GHG emissions reduction by 219,553 tCO2e, and over 53,000 residents will directly benefit from improved thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and increased value and lifespan of the buildings. ICLEI East Asia was leading the work packages of financial mechanism design and stakeholder engagement, to ensure the primary beneficiary – i.e. the household – would be supporting the retrofitting project.

The project aims to support the integration of climate change and air pollution at the city level through capacity building. It contains four consequential activities:

1. convene focus group discussions with city policymakers and experts (health, transport, infrastructure) for needs assessment regarding the knowledge and tools cities should obtain in integrating SLCP reductions into policies and practices;
2. develop a training curriculum drawing from existing materials to support the integration of SLCP reduction into policies and practices for cities in Asia;
3. work with 3 cities to integrate SLCPs reduction into relevant policies and practices;
4. gather inputs to report on the CCAC DI indicators and associated data collection questionnaire/initiative reporting template.

As one of the project deliverables, the Training Curriculum: Integrating Air Pollution and Climate Change Planning in Cities in Asia was released in 2021, aiming to familiarize urban policymakers in the region with the knowledge and tools needed to strengthen the integration between air pollution and climate change planning.

Nature provides many diverse life-supporting and life-enhancing contributions to people in cities and their surrounding regions. In cities of the future, nature should ideally be fully integrated into all aspects of urban life to provide a range of inter-connected benefits.

Led by ICLEI, INTERACT-Bio is designed to improve the utilization and management of nature within fast-growing cities and the regions surrounding them. It aims to provide expanding urban communities in the Global South with nature-based solutions and associated benefits.

Find out more at interactbio.iclei.org

Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) is ICLEI’s flagship biodiversity program developed in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Customized for local and regional authorities around the world, the program seeks to improve biodiversity planning and management at the local level.

Find out more about LAB