Cop26: how cities are going “further and faster”

The approach is already paying off with just 20 per cent of citizens using cars to get around while 80 per cent use bikes, mass transit or walk. “So this is the reason for my political message,” he said. “This is a very fast implementation strategy that isn’t based on a national strategy, which takes too long for the implementation phase.

“We can achieve these really ambition targets much easier and much earlier and so the message to the national leaders is to give us the power and the funding.”

As one of the gateway cities to Antarctica, Hobart, the capital of Tasmania is acutely aware of the impact of climate change. Lord mayor Anna Reynolds similarly called for more power and funding to act locally. Local governments in Australia receive only 3.7 per cent of the taxation revenue raised and with a much bigger investment in city-level governments, she said cities could deliver so much more in terms of both emissions and climate action and adaptation.

“The analysis showed that the emission reductions by just 60 of Australia’s 527 local governments, would achieve 96 per cent of the current national target”

To prove this, in June this year, a group of Australian mayors took the GCoM Oceania research to officials in the capital of Canberra. “The analysis showed that the emission reductions by just 60 of Australia’s 527 local governments, would achieve 96 per cent of the current national target,” said Reynolds.

These city governments are planning and implementing really significant emission reductions in their cities, and our delegation explained to the national government officials that these planned emission reductions are much faster than the national programme to roll-out projects.

“And with only 60 cities brining these significant imagine what would happen if you harness all of those 537 local governments in Australia?”

Representatives from the cities of Mérida in Mexico and Baguio in the Philippines similarly demonstrated what is being achieved locally.

It was left to global ambassador for climate and former and longest-serving mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, to give the closing remarks and he returned to the theme of “further and faster” and said the Global Covenant of Mayors stands ready to continue to scale-up its efforts to support cities and communities around the world. And his message to leaders at Cop26 was a simple and clear one: “As cities around the world we need more support and investment from national governments to take action on climate. That partnership is fundamental to our success. Cities don’t have enough capital to take action.”

He continued: “We are responsible for infrastructure but we cannot repair and rebuild and restore infrastructure and adapt to climate without more resources from our national governments.

“So as a unified voice to our national governments wrapping up here in Glasgow, please take action and support our cities with more investment so that we can take action.”