I sure hope President Bush is paying attention.

Last week, leaders of municipal governments and international businesses from over thirty world cities convened in New York City for the second C40 Large Cities Climate Summit.

As they say on the C40 Cities website:

Cities are responsible for three-quarters of the world’s energy consumption, and as such, the world’s largest cities have a critical role to play in the reduction of carbon emissions and the reversal of dangerous climate change.

One significant outcome of the conference was President Clinton's announcement of a global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, which will raise $5 billion in loans to make existing buildings up to 50 percent more energy efficient in 15 different cities (including New York, Tokyo, Toronto and Paris).

"Climate change is a global problem that requires local action", said President Clinton. "The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation are addressing the issue of global warming because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for their bottom line. They’re going to save money, make money, create jobs and have a tremendous collective impact on climate change all at once. I’m proud of them for showing leadership on the critical issue of climate change and I thank them for their commitment to this new initiative."

“Mayors are responsible for coming up with pragmatic solutions and implementing them effectively – and this program will allow us to do that,” said New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “We’ve laid out an ambitious agenda to reduce our carbon emissions, 80 percent of which come from buildings, while being economically competitive and continuing to grow. By bringing together cities and partnering with the private sector, President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation are providing the tools to help cities accomplish our goals. I applaud their leadership and am proud to stand with our partners today.”

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Chair of the C40, said: “The C40 brings together the world’s most significant cities to tackle climate change. This first program to come out of our partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative is a considerable breakthrough. This procurement alliance will make it financially feasible for cities to radically cut emissions from buildings. Fifteen cities have already signed up to take advantage of this initiative and I am confident many more will follow. National governments still struggle to agree a way forward on global warming, but cities, which are responsible for around three quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, are today demonstrating the leadership and decisive action necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change.”

Another key outcome was a communiqué:

We urge G8 leaders at their forthcoming summit in Heiligendamm to commit to a long-term goal for the stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

In a New York Times editorial yesterday, the question was asked: Can Cities Save The Earth? It puts the challenges ahead in clear perspective:

Sadly, the mayors’ project on energy-efficient buildings would represent the single most significant government response to date on climate change. If it were enough, we would thank the mayors and ride our bicycles into the sunset, but, of course, it isn’t. The job of containing climate-changing human actions — from individual to industrial — cannot occur in a vacuum. The heavy lifting still must be done by the governments of the industrial powers and their emerging counterparts in India, China and Brazil.

It's time for our global leaders to do their part.

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