The solution to the climate crisis goes through cities; See inspiring projects

These are the initiatives that inspire leaders around the world and that feature in awards like the Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards for Local Climate Leaders, held this year in Rio de Janeiro, at a pre-COP30 event. The award is a partnership with the global C40 Cities network, made up of 97 cities committed to tackling climate change.

– This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the C40. In 2005, a small group of visionary mayors created this organization because they feared no one else would take the lead. Today, the results speak for themselves: 73% of our cities, for which we have data, have peaked their emissions, cutting them faster than national governments – says C40 executive director Mark Watts.

C40 and other independent networks of sustainable cities serve as a model for unprecedented actions in Brazil, such as the creation of the Brazilian Network of Resilient Cities. Launched by the Ibam Institute at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), the new network aims to help small and medium-sized municipalities meet climate finance requirements, through training, team formation, structuring and modeling of adaptation projects.

– We will work with shared governance. We will open a call for municipalities to submit proposals and demands, 50 of which will be selected, taking into account the diversity of realities, regions and scales. The idea is to reach 300 municipalities in five years, says Ibam’s president, Sergio Mesior.

According to Ibam CEO Thiago Metzker, the idea is to connect the new network of Brazilian cities with other cities, such as the C40, for exchange and cooperation.

Here are five inspiring examples of cities on different continents that have stood out in tackling the climate crisis.

Quito: The green movement and a plan to deal with volcanoes

Keto has advanced the field of sustainable mobility and water treatment. One of the highlights is the city’s subway, which was opened two years ago as part of a social and environmental policy.

– Now, people travel up to an hour and a half less. The system avoids the emission of about 107,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of planting about 5 million trees, says city mayor Papel Muñoz.

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) fleet is also being renewed: 60 new electric vehicles, and the aim is for the entire fleet operated by the municipality to be powered by electricity and for the energy to be generated by the city itself using solar panels.

Located at an altitude of 2,850 metres, Ecuador’s capital faces two types of risks: water scarcity, which increases the possibility of fires, and excess water, which can cause landslides. In areas affected by the fires, the “Quito is Greener Than Ever” project aims to plant 500,000 native trees. To prevent heavy rains from suddenly reaching urban areas, works are being carried out to reduce water velocity and improve water collection. There is also an expected investment of US$1 billion to treat 100% of wastewater.

There are also initiatives targeting volcanoes, which Muñoz called “old and dangerous neighbors.” According to him, the risks are mainly due to ash, landslides, water flows and silt caused by melting ice – Cotopaxi is a ice volcano. To deal with them, the city developed a disaster management system, considered by the United Nations to be one of the best in Latin America.

Paris: More trees on the streets and less space for cars

In 25 years, Paris has changed radically. Since the turn of the 20th century, automobile traffic in the city has fallen by half, and in the past 20 years, levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution have fallen by 50% and fine particulate matter by 55%.

-When I took over as mayor, it was impossible to breathe. We decided to close the streets, reduce vehicle traffic around schools, and plant more trees and gardens. People thought the mayor was crazy, but we needed that. Today, no one wants to go back to the way things were before, says Anne Hidalgo, who took over as mayor of Paris in 2014 and was re-elected in 2020.

The initial plan was to close 300 streets, more than a hundred of which have already been activated, with additional plants planted, sidewalks widened, vehicular traffic obstructed, and street furniture installed. The city has also eliminated 10,000 parking spaces since 2020.

Last March, Parisians approved a referendum to close another 500 streets (five to eight per district) to car traffic, giving priority to pedestrians and green areas. The referendum will eliminate an additional 10,000 parking spaces and, where it is not possible to plant trees, new cooling towers will be installed.

Citizens are the main actors. If you want to get the benefits, you have to involve them in your decisions – says Anne Hidalgo.

In addition to the city’s ongoing afforestation, there has been a massive expansion of bicycle paths and the decontamination of the Seine River, which this summer opened, for the first time since 1923, to swimmers.

Freetown: Action against deforestation generates income

Located on Sierra Leone’s Atlantic coast, Freetown suffers from deforestation. In recent decades, it has lost about 70% of its forest area due to charcoal production and civil construction. The growth of informal housing in vulnerable areas increases local vulnerability.

The main adaptation and mitigation program is “Freetown, Tree City”, which is part of the “Transforming Freetown” plan, launched in 2019 by Mayor Yvonne Ake Sawyer, who remains in office today.

— Since 2020 we have already planted 1.2 million trees. We want to reach 5 million in 2030, says Yvonne, who has also been co-chair of C40 since 2023.

The campaign received the award in 2022 and has been recognized internationally as a success story in nature-based solutions. The initiative generates employment opportunities and allows tree nurturing through a digital token system.

Residents are paid to plant and plant trees and mangroves, which are given unique IDs and monitored by a Tree Tracker app. Thus, each plant can be linked to an impact token, which is a financial instrument that can be purchased by individuals or companies. Sponsors can access data such as location, species, caregiver, estimated carbon sequestration, and plant survival status.

The money generated from the sale of tokens helps pay caregivers according to their performance. The initiative is also funded by international donors, climate funds and multilateral agencies.

Oslo: Biogas trucks generated from wastewater

The Fossil-Free Truck Project was launched in 2020, and this year it received an award from Bloomberg Philanthropies, in the Clean and Reliable Transport category. Its goal is to accelerate the transition of heavy vehicles, which produce large carbon emissions, to zero emissions.

In Oslo, trucks that do not use fossil fuels are being promoted through a range of policies, starting with tenders requiring zero-emission transport in municipal projects. Vehicles must be electric, or run on biogas produced from city wastewater.

According to the city council, all of Oslo’s wastewater will be used to produce biogas and recover energy. At the city’s two treatment plants, about 14 million standard cubic meters of biogas will be produced in 2024, which is used, for example, to fuel buses and garbage trucks.

As a way to encourage the energy transition, the city council, with resources from the Climate and Energy Fund, has also built dedicated fast chargers for electric charging of heavy vehicles. Another measure was a five-year duty waiver for zero-emission trucks.

Today, 16% of the heavy truck fleet is zero emissions. Of the new cars that will be sold in 2025, 23% are biogas, 13% are electric, and 64% are fossil diesel. According to the city council, these numbers indicate that the municipality’s policies are working, but the transition must happen more quickly for Oslo to meet its emissions reduction targets.

Quezon City: Program that rewards recyclable items

A study published in the journal Science Advances in 2021 found that 80% of plastic waste comes from rivers and that seven of the ten most plastic-polluted rivers in the world are in the Philippines. Part of this is due to the local culture of consuming produce in smaller quantities and at a lower price, known as the “bag economy.” The situation has been exacerbated by the coronavirus, due to the increase in single-use waste, prompting the Quezon City government to launch the Trash to Cashback program in 2021, which offers rewards for recyclable items. This year, the project received an award from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The city has set up ten permanent stations, as well as temporary kiosks in neighborhoods and schools, where residents exchange clean recyclable materials, such as paper, cardboard, metal and plastic bottles, for Eco Points (EPs), which can be used to pay electricity, water and internet bills or exchange for groceries.

EPs can be added to a digital account or, if a resident prefers, they can register at one of the program’s physical stations and obtain a type of debit card for eco-points. The city council has various partnerships, from technology companies, which take care of logistics, sorting of recyclables and digital accounts, to companies that purchase recyclables.