Posts in the 'Good Governance' category
How Including Subnational Governments in NDC Development Strengthens National Climate Action
How Including Subnational Governments in NDC Development Strengthens National Climate Action
As countries prepare their updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) for submission ahead of this year’s UN climate change conference (COP30), there is growing recognition that effective climate action requires strong collaboration between national and subnational governments. Only about a quarter ...
How Subnational Governments Are Shaping Colombia’s Next-Generation Climate Commitments
How Subnational Governments Are Shaping Colombia’s Next-Generation Climate Commitments
Colombia is currently updating its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) later this year. This update aims to highlight Colombia’s national priorities, such as biodiversity and food security, ...
How Gender Equity Can Boost Urban Climate Resilience
How Gender Equity Can Boost Urban Climate Resilience
The evidence is clear: the climate crisis is not gender neutral. Climate change is a threat multiplier. As instability intensifies, women are increasingly subject to conflict and its externalities, including gender-based violence and persecution. And because women are disproportionately represented ...
A New Era of Local-to-Global Climate Action: 10 Things ICLEI Is Watching in 2025
A New Era of Local-to-Global Climate Action: 10 Things ICLEI Is Watching in 2025
COP30 in Belém, Brazil, will be the most substantial and strategic mechanism for local and subnational governments to influence and impact national and global sustainability agendas in 2025. As we gear up for the mid-year Bonn Climate Conference, it is ...
Turning Promises into Progress: Lessons from Campinas’s Climate Action Plan
Turning Promises into Progress: Lessons from Campinas’s Climate Action Plan
Cities are at the forefront of climate impacts, and city governments are key actors in unlocking action to build urban resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, the number of cities and regions committing to climate action and ...
The Urban20 Summit in Rio and the Importance of Subnational-National Collaboration
The Urban20 Summit in Rio and the Importance of Subnational-National Collaboration
As the first week of COP29 drew to a close with intense debates on climate financing and ambitious targets, and just days before the G20 Leaders’ Summit, another international forum turned Rio de Janeiro into the epicenter of discussions on ...
Ciclovía at 50: What We Can Learn from Bogotá's Open Streets Initiative
Ciclovía at 50: What We Can Learn from Bogotá’s Open Streets Initiative
Livability is key to the quality of city life as we look to the future. We don’t have to look far into that future to see how this plays out on the streets. On Sunday, December 15, 1974, a group ...
Detroit Passed the First Law Giving Communities a Say in Development Projects. Here’s What Happened
Detroit Passed the First Law Giving Communities a Say in Development Projects. Here’s What Happened
In 2019, Stellantis (then known as Fiat Chrysler) announced a $2.5 billion plan to expand and modernize two of its auto assembly plants in Detroit. This triggered the city’s Community Benefits Ordinance (CBO) — a unique law that requires companies ...
Decoding Subnational Climate Budgeting in Maharashtra, India
Decoding Subnational Climate Budgeting in Maharashtra, India
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently launched Mumbai’s first-ever climate budget, making it the first city in India and the fourth in the world (after Oslo, New York and London) to launch a climate budget. While Mumbai works to expand and institutionalize their ...
Public Participation Is the ‘Missing Link’ in Effective Urban Heat Mitigation
Public Participation Is the ‘Missing Link’ in Effective Urban Heat Mitigation
In Mathare – a collection of informal settlements northeast of Nairobi, Kenya, housing more than 500,000 residents – heat is reshaping daily existence. Most buildings in Mathare are constructed from materials like corrugated metal, which trap and magnify heat, forcing ...
Countries Have Been Overlooking Their Biggest Climate Allies: Local and Regional Governments
Countries Have Been Overlooking Their Biggest Climate Allies: Local and Regional Governments
Cities are home to more than half the world’s population: 4.4 billion people commuting, working, eating, shopping, and using light, heat and air conditioning. As a result, cities collectively produce over 70% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions warming the planet. They ...
Empowering Cities To Shape Stronger, More Inclusive NDCs: Lessons from Colombia
Empowering Cities To Shape Stronger, More Inclusive NDCs: Lessons from Colombia
Cities are responsible for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are highly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, yet when it comes to climate action, national governments tend to take center stage. Of the 194 ...
Empowering Justice40: How Community-Based Organizations Are Driving Environmental Justice Forward
Empowering Justice40: How Community-Based Organizations Are Driving Environmental Justice Forward
Since President Joe Biden launched the Justice40 Initiative in January 2021, over $600 billion has been designated for more than 500 programs across 19 federal agencies. This funding supports climate-related infrastructure initiatives with a commitment to ensuring 40% of the benefits reach ...
Does Political Decentralization Improve Urban Governance? Balancing Efficacy and Representation in Rajasthan’s Small Towns
Does Political Decentralization Improve Urban Governance? Balancing Efficacy and Representation in Rajasthan’s Small Towns
“Hum faltu hai [in English, “We are useless”] …I don’t even know what the budget of the council is. Nobody tells me about the procurement process [or] the number of tenders that have gone public…I don’t have enough knowledge about ...
Connecting Community Infrastructure Projects Through Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
Connecting Community Infrastructure Projects Through Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
When you hear “infrastructure,” most people naturally think of the physical built environment — roads, bridges, buildings. There’s a lot less emphasis on other kinds of infrastructure that are equally as important, like civic infrastructure. Civic infrastructure encompasses a broad ...
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