CCP Europe Campaign

Welcome to the European Cities for Climate Protection (CCP)TM Campaign homepage! 

The CCP-Europe Campaign forms part of a world-wide movement started in 1993, which aims to address climate change mitigation (reducing the human impact on global warming, by reducing the release of harmful emissions caused by our day-to-day activities) and also adapting to climate change at a local level. Click to visit the international CCP campaign homepage

CCP Europe is a partner of the The Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign, initiated by the European Commission. This partnership is an important step in building a European-wide cooperation in the field of sustainable energy and climate protection.

The World Mayors Council on Climate Change (WMCCC) was initiated by Mayor Yorikane Masumoto, City of Kyoto, Japan, following the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in February 2005. The council’s secretariat is hosted by ICLEI in order to ensure close coordination with the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. The puropses of the WMCCC are

• to politically promote climate protection policies at the local level
• to foster the international cooperation of municipal leaders on achieving climate targets
• to strengthen the political profile and impact of the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign
• to help, through advocacy, make the multilateral mechanisms for global climate protection effective.

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, together with other leading Local Governments Associations worldwide, has started a process leading up to a post-2012 global climate agreement. More information about the Local Climate Action Roadmap for Cities and Local Governments is available on www.iclei.org/climate-roadmap

Local authorities can play an effective role in reducing harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improving local air quality, enhancing urban sustainability and strengthening the resilience of their local community.

We encourage all local authorities to join the CCP Campaign, and become more active in the field of climate protection - to the benefit of your inhabitants, your local infrastructure and the environment. 'Act locally, think globally' - now!

The CCP Reinforced Strategy for Europe (English, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, English summary, German summary, Spanish summary) was launched in May 2006, during the conference 'A Future with Zero CO2 Emissions' held in Stockholm, Sweden. This has helped to reinvigorate the Campaign and the interest of cities and towns in climate protection. The Reinforced Strategy now also includes climate change adaptation as a central topic, in parallel to mitigation.

Also launched during the conference 'A Future with Zero CO2 Emissions', is the initiative 'Cities of Ambition'. City of Ambition is a status that can be achieved by European local authorities that are very active in the field of climate protection. To learn more about this city status and to find out more about the first 'Cities of Ambition' please click here.

All cities and towns in Europe (EU27 and beyond) are warmly invited to join the Campaign, and link up to this network and framework for action that is in place in support of their activities in the field of climate.

The Stockholm Impulse Declaration was launched at the same event, to encourage more local authorities to actively commit to climate protection. Political leaders are invited to endorse this document.

Campaign Background

In March 1993, leading representatives of 83 cities from 23 European countries came together for the first time at a European conference to address the issue of climate protection.  Under the sponsorship of the European Commission DG XI, the Convention of European Municipal Leaders on Climate Change held by ICLEI in Amsterdam launched the Cities for Climate Protection Europe campaign.

"Through ICLEI, local government is a well established and fully recognized constituency of stakeholders in the climate change process..."

- Michael Zammit Cutajar, Executive Secretary UNFCCC Secretariat, CCP World Summit (November 1997).

The Role of Local Authorities

Our climate is busy changing and it will continue to change throughout this century.  The longer we delay in implementing effective actions to mitigate the impact of climate change, the more we will have to adapt to the changing environment.

Climate change will affect many of your local authority's services, assets and infrastructure - from water and waste management, to energy provision.  Recent extreme weather events, such as the flooding in the European summer of 2002 and 2005, and the extremely hot summer of 2003 and 2006, have shown that the climate can have a big impact on our society and that infrastructure and services need to be designed to meet the risk.  It is in the interests of local authorities to act now to find sustainable solutions to minimise the impact of climate change. 

The CCP-Europe campaign assists local authorities in finding just such a solution.