COP18 (05/12/12) – Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI, Rodrigo de Oliveira Perpetuo, Deputy Secretary, Prefeitura Municipal de Belo Horizonte and Yuko Nishida, Bureau of Environment, Tokyo Metropolitan Government talk about how cities are tackling climate change.
They talk about how ICLEI brings cities from across the world together and how they all have one major challenge in common. Currently 3.5 billion people live in cities, but Van Begin warns that this could double in 40 years and cities must develop their urban infrastructure to deal with this.
He says there should be more recognition for cities and more support for them under the UN climate Process.
They also share experiences from their own cities, of the challenges they face, including energy, transport and poverty and also the solutions they have found. Nishida talks about the focus in Tokyo on the energy consumption and waste from buildings.