ICLEI World Congress in Edmonton: Day One

For the uninitiated, ICLEI was the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives. Now it’s called the ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability. More than 1000 local governments belong, including ours, collectively represetning over 400,000,000 people in 67 countries.

Canadian delegates met this morning. The president of ICLEI, Cllr. David Cadman (at the podium) is from Vancouver.

More than 600 delegates are in town until Thursday for the tri-annual ICLEI World Congress to talk urban sustainability and, among other things, plan for the pivotal UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen happening later this year.

And boy am I glad they’re here. This conference is a once in a lifetime chance for our city to share our successes in waste management, water and wastewater, and biodiversity with the world. It’s also a chance for us to learn about successes other cities have had. Most of all, it’s a chance for local government to take centre stage for a few days and talk about real solutions to climate change.

Did you know that more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas, and that cities are where more than 75% of energy is consumed globally, and that more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions come from cities?

Point is, federal and state/provincial governments won’t get far reducing greenhouse gas emissions (presuming they really want to) without the deep involvement of local governments. Plus, cities already ‘get it.’ Seattle led the initiative for over 900 American municipalities to sign on to Kyoto targets while the U.S. Federal government floundered. And in Canada, Edmonton and other cities participated in founding ICLEI back in 1990 and remains a leader in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Partnership for Climate Protection with ICLEI.

So far I’ve: traded photos from Saturday’s Pride Parade with councillors from Australia; talked about the ICLEI young leaders initiative with councillors form Germany and Finland; and talked about the merits of Batavus Dutch bikes (like mine, available at RedBike) with town staffers and green entrepreneurs from Holland while riding home on the LRT.

I also snuck out of some of the formalities during the afternoon to take in one of the associated community events: Trevor Anderson’s That’s Edmonton For You! performance in Louise McKinney Park. It was an original commissioned series of songs about Edmonton and sustainability, and more than 2000 Edmontonians of all ages showed up for the sun and sounds. I understand it will be posted and available free sometime somewhere. If somebody knows where please comment.

Also, bloggers extraordinaire Daveberta and Mastermaq  have media access and are blogging and tweeting their brains out.