Lord Mayor of Hobart, Anna Reynolds delivered a Statement on behalf of all Australian capital cities at the Seoul Mayors Forum last week outlining their commitment to climate and calling for stronger cooperation with the Australian Government. The Lord Mayor also spoke at a high level plenary at the Forum and was interviewed for ICLEI’s CityTalk blog.

The Statement calls on the Australian Government to:

• Raise the level of action and ambition on climate policy through a new national emissions reduction target;

• Work with Australian Mayors and local governments to deliver a new national agreement for climate action; and

• Strongly support local governments to prepare cities for climate extremes

And outlines the CCCLM’s commitment to:

• Work together over the long term to accelerate practical climate action;

• Advocate to the Australian Government to accelerate practical action, and assess raising the current national emissions reduction target; and

• Work with Mayors around the world via the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy to champion and advance climate action in cities.

Read the full Statement.

Lord Mayor Reynolds serves as the Chair of the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors, which provides leadership for the effective coordination and representation of the capital cities of the Australian states and territories, especially in relationships with other spheres of government. The Council has taken up climate change as one of its main focuses, and Lord Mayor Reynolds brought a climate action statement to share at the Forum.

“At the city level, everyone has been getting on with the job of implementing strategies to reduce emissions, but we can see that there’s not enough collaboration between the federal government and cities in Australia,” said Mayor Reynolds. That’s what makes the vertical relationship role of the Council particularly effective. “We think it’s important to remind the federal government that if they worked with cities they could deliver a lot stronger reductions in carbon emissions.”

Retrieved from ICLEI CityTalk