Our Activities

ICLEI supports the Clean Energy Living Laboratories (CELLs) and the Project Management Office, especially on local government engagement. ICLEI works with demonstration cities to mainstream a local energy plan and assists the CELLs in developing a curriculum for an executive education program targeting policymakers and stakeholders and support advocacy activities.

ICLEI facilitates City-to-City Exchange activities, conducting workshops to capacitate selected demonstration cities, and linking the cities to possible funding sources. The workshops are aimed to help the demonstration cities in actualizing their local energy plans. ASEP-CELLs’ emphasis on advocating, educating and supporting evidence-based policies and programs is expected to improve the learning conditions and experiences among stakeholders and champions.

A group of students from Northeastern University has been studying Fortaleza’s current Climate Action Plan, its actions and goals, and how far they have advanced. They have also been studying American projects, policies and initiatives, in order to be able to explore how policies, technologies, and cultural differences in various countries have helped grow and implement sustainable efforts and to make comparisons between sustainable energy technologies and policies in US and Brazil, and Boston and Fortaleza. The Lab’s products will be a written proposal and a one page executive summary to the mayor summarizing suggestions and appointments, and an oral presentation.

Through the project, ICLEI will support 20 cities, with emission inventories, targets and guidelines for mitigation. It includes preparation of an inventory of GHG emissions and atmospheric pollutants; future emission scenarios for 5, 10, 20 and 40 years, with reduction targets; institutional implementation strategies and inventory review mechanisms; and training of RMC technicians in the GPC methodology to allow the initiative to be internally replicated in the inventory review processes.

ICLEI provides capacity building to target cities in implementing low emission development strategies as well as mainstreaming science-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in local development processes.

The project utilizes the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) Process toolkit, the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) in formulating the cities’ climate action and management plans, and USAID Clean Energy Emission Reduction (CLEER) Tool in assessing the cities’ vulnerabilities, risks, and emissions. Through these analyses, target cities will be able to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation principles in their local development plans.

ICLEI is responsible for project implementation in all four partner cities, including preparation of Climate Resilient City Action Plan for four Indian partner cities – Coimbatore, Rajkot, Siliguri and Udaipur – that addresses both climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation using ClimateResilientCities methodology; strengthening the capacities of cities to identify, plan and implement measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for enhancing resilience to climate change; implementation of quick win projects to showcase reduction of GHG emissions; identification and planning for bankable projects based on requirements of the cities for large scale implementation of climate resilience building activities; and peer learning and exchange. Measures developed as a result of this project are being integrated in municipal budget to mainstream climate resilience in city development.

ICLEI is the lead author, supported by groups of city and carbon accounting experts from various fields, in the development of industry standards for local government GHG emissions accounting in the US. The development of the U.S. Community Protocol, the Local Government Operations Protocol, and the Recycling and Composting Protocol positioned ICLEI as exclusive experts in local government carbon accounting. Recognizing this expertise, ICLEI was asked to contribute to the development of the Global Protocol for Community Scale GHG emissions (GPC) and is currently working on an update to the U.S. Community Protocol to better account for forestry and land use changes. ICLEI continues to provide technical guidance for the application of the protocols to cities and practitioners around the world.

Over 300 Canadian municipalities are making a public commitment to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and to act on climate change. Through the development and application of accounting and planning tools, knowledge development resources, training workshops and peer-networks, ICLEI builds the capacity of local governments across Canada to mitigation climate change.

ICLEI advances achievement of state and local sustainability goals by assisting California cities and counties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. The support is offered to any local government free of charge, and can be a light-touch (answering questions) to in-depth assistance (completion of an GHG inventory).

In addition to technical support, the program convenes an annual peer-exchange event, offers virtual training, and recognizes communities that hit milestones in clean energy and climate action. ICLEI’s GHG emissions management tool, ClearPath, has been adapted to meet California specific requirements and opportunities. The program makes the software tool available at no cost to all local governments statewide; provides technical support in the development of GHG inventories and climate action plans, and shares out best practices observed.

Local governments are key actors when it comes to tackling climate change. Reducing GHG emissions at the local level should be managed and monitored using well-structured mechanisms. In South Korea, the Korea Environment Corporation (KeCO) supports Korean Local governments to calculate their GHG inventories. It has developed a tool based on the IPCC 2016 Guidelines, and it provides technical capacity for developing local GHG inventories. At the global level ICLEI, WRI and C40 developed the Global Protocol for Community-scale GHG inventories (GPC), now embedded in the GCoM Data Standard. This is the recommended approach for all local governments. Yet not all tools used by local governments are aligned to this new global approach. By aligning KeCO’s tool with the GPC, local governments in Korea can benefit in terms of cost and time when reporting their inventory together with their reduction target and action plan – connecting tem to the global developments. ICLEI coordinates the alignment process and the application process to obtain for the KeCO GHG tool an official stamp of approval, confirming the tool is confrm to the GPC, as part of the WRI GHG Protocol. This will enable Korean local governments to report their GG inventoriues using the KeCo tool, thereby receiving confirmation that they are using the Gcom Data Standard of global reporting.

Over the course of the PACMUN project, ICLEI has worked with over 450 Mexican municipalities to develop GHG inventories, collect data and define local climate action plans. Project activities focus on building the capacity of municipal staff to establish goals and prioritize actions on climate and resilience. Municipalities also work with ICLEI to report their climate and data and can voluntarily submit their climate action plans to the Ministry of Environment.