Are Our Cities Climate Change Ready?

The “Resilient Cities 2016″ forum will take place from July 6 – 8 in Bonn, Germany. This is the 7th annual forum held by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and ICLEI Resilient Cities.  Both entities are charged with addressing the critical issues of urban resilience and adaption to climate change. A global platform, Resilient Cities 2016 will assemble over 400 experts and practitioners from around the world to review progress on cities’  preparations to withstand the impacts of climate change. For more information on the group, visit here.

Recently, the global push to make cities more resilient has been making news. In Australia the government is supporting smart city innovations that would boost the use of clean and renewable energy by  $100 million each year.  Just this week, more than 60 mayors of Chinese and U.S. cities met in Beijing at the second U.S.-China Climate-Smart Low-Carbon Cities Summit. They shared strategies and lessons on how to transition their cities to low carbon use. The United States and China are responsible for over one third of global greenhouse gas emissions.