Coordinated by ICLEI, the Global Lead City Network on Sustainable Procurement gathers a group of cities committed to driving the transition to sustainable consumption and production by implementing sustainable and innovative procurement.

Through defining quantified targets for their procurement processes, GLCN Cities act as ambassadors of sustainable procurement to lead to a resource-efficient, low-carbon, and socially responsible society.

Find out more at glcn-on-sp.org

The Transformative Actions Program (TAP) provides a framework by connecting transformative local climate projects with project preparation facilities (PPFs) and tools that improve project bankability. Projects in the pipeline are screened based on their transformative impact which ensures their enduring potential.

ICLEI develops partnerships that connect the goals of diverse stakeholders into one coherent value chain for developing robust, transformative, and bankable projects that will accelerate low-to-no emission and climate-resilient development. ICLEI regional offices act as catalysts for mobilizing projects and as the first “filter” to identify priority projects.

Find out more at tap-potential.org

Human activities contribute a significant and growing proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the increased demand for energy and other services in urban areas – also driven by rapid population growth – exacerbating the climate challenge. There is an urgent need for actions that will substantially contribute to the Paris Agreements’ climate targets, to stay well below 1.5 Degrees Celsius.

Under the Urban-LEDS Phase II project funded by the European Commission, UN-Habitat and ICLEI are jointly implementing this project to address integrated climate action in local governments and their cities. Using ICLEI’s GreenClimateCities process methodology, technical guidance and capacity development are provided to selected local governments, also mobilizing cities to commit to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), exploring access to financing and supporting multilevel governance to enable effective action.

Find out more at urban-leds.org

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.

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

ICLEI connects like-minded cities to exchange experiences and lessons learned on the way towards the circular economy, advocates the necessity of closing-the-loop thinking, identifies cities’ circular good practices, shares the latest knowledge, and provides suggestions on mainstreaming the circular development in urban strategic planning and policies.

Launched in 2019, the Green Circular Cities Coalition （GCCC） presents a platform for cities, experts, businesses, and relevant stakeholders in East Asia and Europe, to help foster their mindset shift from the end-of-pipe treatment of waste toward closed-loop thinking. This mindset change can have a positive influence on local governments’ actions to achieve a zero-carbon society and the SDGs. Cities can further review, synergize and optimize existing policies and strategies via the lenses of circularity and life-cycle management.

The Green Circular Cities Coalition is managed by ICLEI East Asia, and currently has 6 members from China, Japan, and Finland.

Find out more about the Green Circular Cities Coalition 

The Urban Transitions Alliance connects industrial legacy cities from Europe, USA and China committed to accelerating ambitious and inclusive transitions, as well as showcasing their sustainability leadership. Alliance cities share their own transition experiences, knowledge, and good practices based on social, economic, and environmental challenges within their unique industrial legacy context. Through a tailored exchange platform hosted by ICLEI, the Alliance helps cities to identify and leverage expertise to co-create implementation strategies for sustainability-related projects.

Find out more about the Urban Transitions Alliance

The EcoMobility World Festival series by ICLEI shows that an ecomobile lifestyle can be promoted in cities around the world. The Festival transforms a neighborhood or a business district in a city into a carfree and ecomobile area for a month. Implementing the Festival demonstrates the possibilities of an innovative and forward-thinking urban mobility culture.

Previous festivals:

• 2013 – Suwon
• 2015 – Johannesburg
• 2017 – Kaohsiung

Find out more at Sustainable Mobility at ICLEI

The Resilience Cities Congress convened annually from 2010 to 2019 by ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn, providing a global and open space for urban practitioners, policymakers, and researchers working in urban resilience and climate change adaptation. It built an active, informed, and committed community and played a key role in mainstreaming urban resilience in global agreements and processes.

During the 10 years of the Congress, thousands of experts from over 80 countries actively participated in and collaborated on hundreds of capacity-building sessions. Building on the experience and network established during the Congress, the newly launched Daring Cities provides a virtual, action-oriented forum to recognize and empower courageous urban leaders to disrupt business-as-usual and shift towards business-as-possible.

The report Resilient Cities, Thriving Cities: The Evolution of Urban Resilience provides an appraisal of the state of resilient cities from the last decade, as well as the actions of the main players in respective fields.

The East Asia Clean Air Cities Network (EACACN) serves as a unique regional inter-city cooperation platform for sharing best practices and building capacity on clean air actions.

EACACN initially began as the East Asia Clean Air Cities initiative in 2016, based on a regional partnership among 9 local governments in China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia and managed by ICLEI East Asia, in response to the urgent need for air quality improvement in the region. Since then, EACACN has grown into a network of 14 local governments across East and Southeast Asia, with stronger operational capacity and commitment.

Find out more at eacacn.org

The Asia Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) Partnership (ALP) is a voluntary regional network comprised of organizations and individuals from the public, private, and non-governmental sectors active in designing, promoting, and/or implementing LEDS in the region. Under the Partnership, ICLEI supports and promotes regional cooperation and collaboration and facilitates learning across member organizations and Asian countries by

• assisting Asian countries to advance LEDS, green growth strategy, and achieve NDC targets;
• offering peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and learning through online sessions and in-person regional peer learning and training workshops;
• providing access to resource materials such as issue briefs, case stories, decision tools, and training materials that enable practitioners in the region to champion LEDS; and
• providing technical assistance to address needs and advance LEDS and NDC implementation.

Find out more at asialeds.org

The Solutions Gateway is an online resource platform for local and regional governments where they will be able to find relevant Low Emissions Development (LED) Solutions for their cities. It contains sectoral and cross-sectoral packages of activities, structured along with local government responsibilities and spheres of influence, to support cities in the development of low-emission strategies, plans, and projects.

The Solutions Gateway contents are based on proven technologies and practices, distilled into Solutions and Solution Packages which are drafted and peer-reviewed by experts in the respective field. The platform was developed under the Urban-LEDS project, funded by the European Union, and jointly implemented by ICLEI and UN-Habitat.

Find out more at solutions-gateway.org