JOHANNESBURG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- South Africa has been selected to host the 5th biennial C40 Cities Mayors Summit in February 2014, Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau announced on Wednesday.
The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large cities around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions to help address climate change globally.
Tau said that during the summit, to be held from Feb. 4 to 6 in Johannesburg, hundreds of urban and climate change leaders from around the world will meet to advance urban solutions to combat the impacts of global climate change.
"Climate change is not an issue that affects only the industrialized countries of the northern hemisphere. It is an everyday reality for the people of Africa in rapidly expanding cities, as well as rural areas faced by the consequences of dramatic changes in weather patterns, resulting in threats to crops and livestock and their ability to survive," the mayor said in Johannesburg.
Each city in the C40 is unique in its infrastructure and progress in addressing climate change. C40 works to empower cities to connect with each other and share technical expertise on best practices, Tau said.
The event will feature a series of roundtable discussions and working sessions which will bring together C40 mayors, their staffs and technical experts to discuss city driven climate actions and their impacts. The discussions will be data-driven and outcome focused.
While cities only occupy 2 percent of the Earth's landmass, they contain over 50 percent of its population, use two thirds of its energy and generate over 70 percent of its carbon emissions.
Combined, C40 cities have the potential to reduce future emissions by up to 1.3 billion tonnes by 2030.
The summit will highlight a wide range of successful on-going projects from around the world, including building efficiency standards, sustainable transport measures, delta cities partnerships, and other green growth practices and programmes. It will enable mayors to share challenges and successes, and identify opportunities for collaboration.
The current chair of the C40 is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
