Mayors, ministers and city representatives gathered at the COP22 in Marrakech (Morocco) yesterday for a session to discuss the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, a new worldwide initiative announced in June 2016 for ambitious cities to help tackle climate change. The new initiative – which will “go live” on 1 January 2017 - is a result of the EU’s Covenant of Mayors, and the Compact of Mayors, coming together. In combination, the Global Covenant represents 7,100 cities over 119 countries. The event articulated a unified vision and provided a forum for city and local government representatives committed to addressing climate change. It introduced the new initiative, and analysed the impact of the collective city commitments.

Through mayors, the Global Covenant will enable cities to collect and report climate data in a comparable and transparent way, allowing them to produce climate action plans and to track their progress.The Global Covenant can facilitate cities' engagement with the national level, and help the UN and the global community identify contributions that cities and local governments are making toward the goals set in Paris, which will underscore how important cities are to meeting them. It will provide a path for mayors to reduce carbon emissions and strengthen resilience, while achieving other, more localised benefits such as increased access to clean and affordable energy, improved public health and strengthened local economies.

Célestine Ketcha Epse Courtes, the mayor of Bangangte (Cameroon), attended the event. She said: “The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy must use existing networks to bring together and push forward on the climate action that cities, towns and regions will implement. We need to walk all together and hand in hand to ensure our needs are understood by local governments.”

For more information on the new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, click here.