By JERMECIA EDWARDS
Mayor Bloomberg and Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau announced on Tuesday that the city of Johannesburg, South Africa will host the fifth biennial Mayors Summit next February.
Hundreds of urban and climate change leaders from around the world will join mayors from the world’s largest cities for three days to advance urban solutions to tackle climate change and reduce climate risk.
“Policy goals and long-term climate change in Johannesburg are to come out of this summit building relationships,” said Bloomberg
The summit is focused on the concrete actions they can take to protect the planet and grow cities, the mayors said.
“I’ve noticed increase intensity in rain over the past decade in Johannesburg, so it’s good to invest in infrastructure, discuss public decisions process of landfill to energy and ensure that waste becomes a resource,” said Tau.
The chief executives mentioned practices and programs including building efficiency standards, sustainable transport measures and delta cities partnerships.
“Hosting this event is clear recognition of the growing role that Africa, and the global South can play to find solutions to the most pressing issues facing our globe,”said Tau. “It will be a historic moment for Johannesburg.”
The group was established in 2005 and expanded after partnering in 2006 with President Bill Clinton’s climate Initiative .
“The fact that he could learn something from us and we can learn something from him, is the main reason I’m looking forward to this,” said Bloomberg. “We have the same type of problems and have more in common than less.”
Photo by Jermecia Edwards
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