Interview with the Mayor of Changwon: Mayor Ahn Sang-soo

Mr. Ahn Sang-soo is the newly elected mayor of Changwon City. He is also the new chairperson of the EcoMobility Alliance. Mayor Ahn is a lawyer by profession and has worked in the judicial system for over 20 years. It is understood that Mayor Sang-soo has EcoMobility high on his agenda during his term. He is also very interested to promote the public bike-sharing scheme of Changwon, NUBIJA.

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LAB Pioneer Helsingborg shows excellence in biodiversity conservation!

ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center is very proud to announce that the City of Helsingborg, a participant in the Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) Program and ICLEI member, came 2nd overall in an independent survey of municipalities in Sweden, to determine those doing the most to place nature at the heart of the city.

What role will cities play in the biodiversity agreements?

Interview with Dr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) will hold its 12th Convention of the Parties (COP 12) in Pyeongchang, Korea from 29 September to 17 October 2014.

Hetauda bags the award for the cleanest city in Nepal 2014

ICLEI member city Hetauda was declared the cleanest city of Nepal for 2014 by the Solid Waste Management Technical Support Centre under the Ministry of Urban Development, Nepal. Hetauda stood out to be the winner because of its integrated and sustainable waste management schemes, green growth promotion including recreation parks, massive level of people's participation in environment conservation and waste management activities and pilot initiatives for zero waste management!.

ICLEI signs joint declaration on enhancing European energy security through local action

Six major EU local and regional authority networks, including ICLEI, have co-signed the joint declaration "Local actions are key to European energy security", pledging to undertake five strategic sets of actions to support their member cities and regions in contributing to energy security in the EU.

Gearing up for the 2014 Cities and subnational Biodiversity Summit

Preparations for the largest side event at the CBD COP 12, the 2014 Biodiversity Summit for Cities and Subnational Governments, are already well underway and ICLEI is excited at the line-up of excellent speakers and fascinating topics being drawn together.

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Bogota Declaration echoes global voices in praising UrbanSDG

Cities are key to achieving sustainable development goals, states the new Bogota Declaration. The Declaration, to be presented at the Habitat III preparatory meeting in New York in September, is the main outcome document of the conference Rio+20 High-level Dialogue on Sustainable Cities, Transport and Tourism held on 10-12 August 2014 in Bogota, Colombia.

ICLEI Canada launches suite of urban biodiversity management resources

ICLEI Canada and the Toronto and Region Conservation launch their latest resource on biodiversity, biodiverCities: A Primer on Nature in Cities! With the majority of the world's population living in urban areas, its time to ask how they can become more livable, sustainable and resilient. biodiverCities explores why biodiversity should be the business of everyone committed to building more sustainable cities.

GPC 2.0 – now open for public comments!

After a successful nine-month pilot test from May 2013 to January 2014, the improved second version of the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC 2.0) is now open for public comments until 18 August 2014. Practitioners and technical experts in the fields of energy, transportation, waste management, agriculture and forestry, and city officials are invited to comment.

Sustainability, innovation and cost efficiency: taking procurement forward

The EcoProcura 2014 conference is just a few months away, taking place over three days from 24 - 26 September 2014. A detailed programme was released recently, with all the latest information about the conference programme, including details of the sessions, confirmed speakers and much more.

Advisory Committee of Subnational Governments met in Chuncheon, Korea to prepare for CBD/COP12

Recognizing the profound impact cities make on the ecosystems, and their strategic roles in decision-making, the Biodiversity Summit for Cities and Subnational Governments – the biggest event held in parallel to the upcoming 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – will bring cities and subnational governments into the global dialogue on biodiversity conservation..

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29-31 May 2014 in Bonn, Germany

Raising awareness through the All India Environmental Journalism Competition

As India moves on a path of rapid economic growth, environmental degradation is becoming severe. To take up and walk on the path of sustainable development, awareness and knowledge about the state of the environment and sustainable solutions are key.

Helsinki aims to develop 'mobility on demand' by 2025

Within ten years, private cars could be a thing of the past in the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Realising that young Finns are increasingly less likely to want to own and operate private cars, the ICLEI member is planning a transition away from personal car ownership to a system where information on and use of public transport would be immediately available to all users.